Sachertorte recipe?
My mother is of German descent and has for a long time lamented the fact that she never got a written copy of a favorite recipe that her grandmother used to make her, a classic German sachertorte. She's tried a world of other recipes and never found one that really loved. All she recalls about the recipe is that her grandmother used to use a string to cut the cake in half horizontally, then she would spread apricot jelly in the middle. She also remembers her using ground up almonds and beaten egg whites, and covering the whole cake with a melted chocolate glaze. All of this is pretty standard sachertorte procedure, I know. But in any case, while I know I'll never be able to recreate the exact recipe her grandmother made, I've been making attempts to at least get close and would like to try again for Mother's Day. Does anyone have any recipes they recommend? The one I tried most recently was a Wolfgang Puck recipe on the food network website. Any other leads would be appreciated!
Update: Just realized that it was not in fact ground almonds my mom said went into the cake. Apparently it was actually ground hazelnuts. I haven't seen any recipes that call for hazelnuts, but I can always use one that calls for almonds and sub them out.
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todao
May 9, 2012 09:25 AM
Sachertorte (the Austrian original) is made with almonds. The hazel nut variety is often referred to as "Alhambra" cake and you may find a recipe searching for that.
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re: todao
arielleeve
May 9, 2012 09:58 AM
Interesting! I did some searching and couldn't find any decent recipes. After a morning of googling, I've found that yes, all the sachertorte recipes either call for almonds or no nuts at all. Haven't found anything with hazelnuts. So in all likelihood I guess my great-grandmother's recipe was her own creation or a regional/family version of the traditional. Most of what my mom says matches up with a sachertorte -- the whipped egg whites; apricot jam; chocolate glaze -- so I think my best bet would be to use a sachertorte recipe that calls for almonds and just sub in ground hazelnuts instead.
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