012 was sponsored by Chocolate Torte (not tart! and not a pastry item, but rather a flourless chocolate cake, adapted from a chocolate fondant recipe by good ol' Gordie Ramsay).
So key skills I used/learnt here were whisking egg whites, folding chocolate mixture, how to melt chocolate with liquor (bung it in the microwave - v good tip!) and also a reminder than my oven runs hot.
Yep how could I forget that you're thinking, I must use it a lot...
well I always forget that baking requires my oven to be at a different temperature to 180 which is where I keep it for most cooking without a recipe.... so the first
dinner party of 2012 could also be said to be sponsored by 'crispiness' or 'caramelised' or 'brown bits', the good news is that the salmon was MEANT to be crispy and that the cake tasted good, albeit a tad dry, the vast quantity of chocolate and butter making up for the over cookness I like to think!
So I think I agree with BraveTart (BraveTart.com - my new fav blog) that all bakers need to know your ovens! And learning from that I'll be running mine at a slightly lower temp for the next cooked dessert....
So for the torte you'll need 25g butter and 25g grated chocolate to coat the tin, (20cm, springform if you have it)
350g dark chocolate at 65% cocoa solids
1 tablespoon instant coffee (I omitted this and next time I'll add a splash of grand marnier instead!)
2 tablespoons of boiling water
2-3 tablespoons of brandy (see point about coffee above!)
4 large eggs separated
100g unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
200g caster sugar
1) So I struggled slightly with the coating the tin part - apparently you're meant to cut a piece of baking parchment to line the base of the tin, set this to one side, brush the inside of the tin with the melted butter and chill until set - then coat the side with the grated chocolate.
Now to me I think the butter has got to be wet for the chocolate to stick - hence I had a LOT of grated chocolate to tip out - next time I'll coat with the chocolate whilst the butter is soft and then chill until the butter/chocolate coating is set...
2) break up the chocolate and place in a large heatproof bowl - dissolve coffee in boiling water, stir in the brandy and melt the chocolate in the microwave (2 mins on high). Stir until smooth and set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/gas 4 (or in my case
probably 160 to lessen crispiness lol!)
3) beat the egg yolks and butter in a bowl until creamy - if it looks split then your butter isn't warm enough so just allow it to warm up a bit and it'll go creamy. Then beat in the chocolate mixture.
4) in another bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until softly stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar until you have a firm glossy meringue.
5) Carefully fold the meringue into the chocolate mixture a third at a time, until its evenly incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and level the top. Bake for approx 40 minutes until risen and the top is crispy (see it was meant to be like that!!). the torte might crack a little and the mixture underneath will still be soft
6) turn off the oven and leave the cake to cool slowly inside for about an hour - remove and cool completely, but DO NOT CHILL - this torte should be moist and soft.
7) to unmould run a table knife around the side of the torte to loosen it, then invert onto a serving plate:
I then turned it back up the other way as it looked better and to hide the crispy bits - the perfect solution = left over grated chocolate and blueberries, serve with creme fraiche!
As for the rest of the dinner - I did the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal for crispy salmon, which involves a large amount of salmon with mexican accompaniments, including tortilla wraps, guacamole, salsa, courgette salad, rice and sour cream - definitely recommend it!
Here's one someone blogged before:
And enjoy...
The Camden Road Cook
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