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1. How to Melt Chocolate

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4. Sacher Torte


Chocolate Cake: 150 Recipes from Simple to Sublime
by Michele Urvater
Broadway Books

Date: September 2001
ISBN: 0767906071
Hardcover
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Book Description
Chocolate cake is America's favorite dessert, from fudgy brownies to mile-high layer cakes. Now, virtually every rendition of this best-loved dessert is presented in one tempting volume–more than 150 cakes for every occasion.

Bestselling cookbook author and pastry chef Michele Urvater has collected and reinterpreted the finest recipes from American and European baking traditions. Here are easy homemade classics such as old-fashioned Devil's Food Cake and Buttermilk Chocolate Cake as well as more challenging pastry-shop fare such as Sacher Torte, Hungarian Dobos Torte, and a festive Double Chocolate Christmas Log. There are heirloom cakes that date to the beginning of the last century and desserts as up-to-the-minute as individual warm chocolate cakes.

Urvater guides bakers of all skill levels through a wealth of original and tempting variations on the standards, such as Pecan Bourbon Chocolate Cake or Hawaiian Coconut Cake with White Chocolate Ganache. And a plethora of fillings, icings, buttercreams, and glazes allows for nearly endless mixing and matching of layers and frostings.

Each recipe has a designated level of difficulty, so even the novice baker will be able to achieve instant success–and chocolate gratification. Meticulous recipes along with advice on advance preparation, serving, decoration, and storage all make this comprehensive tribute to the ultimate dessert a book that belongs in every baker's library.

About the Author
Michele Urvater is the author of the bestselling Monday-to-Friday cookbook series and former host of the TVFN program of the same name. A baking and culinary graduate of New York City Technical College, she began her career sharing a single chef's job with two other women in a small restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She then worked as a chef in a private corporate dining room and taught cooking classes before beginning her second career as a cookbook writer. Her third career began just a couple of years ago, when she fell in love with the pastry arts and returned to school to earn a diploma as a pastry chef from the esteemed French Culinary Institute.

Sacher Torte
From: Chocolate Cake by Michele Urvater
(Broadway Books; September 2001; ISBN: 0767906071; HC)
Cookbook Heaven @ recipelink.com


Sacher Torte

There are many stories and myths about the origins of this famous cake. The version I know was told to me by Jurgen David, one of my pastry teachers at the French Culinary Institute. He is Austrian and worked for a few years at the Sacher Hotel, making countless numbers of Sacher tortes, and he swears this is the only authentic recipe for Sacher torte.

Sometime in the 1830s, Emperor Franz Josef, of the Austro-Hungarian empire, asked his pastry chef, Eduard Sacher, to create a less filling cake than the whipped cream-filled ones then in vogue. At the time, Mr. Sacher was working at Demers pastry shop in Vienna, where he created for the emperor the jam-filled cake we know today as Sacher torte. However, after he left Demel’s pastry shop and established his own establishment--the Sacher Hotel--he continued to bake his cake. This is how a dispute arose between Demers and the Sacher Hotel about which was the authentic cake. Eventually the dispute was settled and laws were put into place about which ingredients are allowed in an authentic Sacher torte and how it must be prepared. Today, only Demel's and the Sacher Hotel in Vienna are allowed, by law, to inscribe the name Sacher on their cakes. The only change I have made is to substitute unsweetened chocolate (which Europeans do not use) for the bittersweet chocolate so that the glaze is less cloying.

Makes one 9-inch, 2-layer cake; Serves 12

CAKE

  • 7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
  • Scant 1/2 cup (2 ounces) confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 6 large eggs, separated
  • 3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
  • Pinch of salt
  • 7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces) superfine sugar
  • 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3.5 ounces) cake flour

FILLING

  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons dark rum
  • 1 cup (12-ounce jar) apricot preserves

SACHER GLAZE

  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8.75 ounces) granulated sugar
  • 7 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

TO MAKE THE CAKE

  1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 2.5-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a parchment or greased waxed paper circle.
  2. With an electric mixer on low speed (or with a stationary mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), beat the butter for 1 minute, or until light. Add the confectioners' sugar and beat for 2 minutes longer.
  3. Add the egg yolks two at a time, beating for 10 seconds between additions, or until absorbed by the butter. Scrape down the beaters and sides of the bowl and beat for 1 minute longer, or until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and mix until combined.
  4. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks. With the machine running, add the superfine sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, and beat until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. With a rubber spatula, fold 1/2 the egg whites into the batter. Transfer the flour to a strainer and sift it over the batter as you fold it in along with the remaining beaten egg whites.
  5. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan, smooth the top, and set the pan on a larger baking sheet (to catch the drips). Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out dry.
  6. Cool the cake to room temperature in the pan on a wire rack. Run a knife around the cake to loosen it from the sides, then unlock the springform and lift the cake out of the ring.

TO MAKE THE FILLING

  1. Turn the cooled cake upside down onto a cardboard round cut slightly smaller than the diameter of the cake. Remove the metal base and peel off the paper. With a serrated knife, split the cake horizontally in two and set aside the top layer.
  2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil, stirring. Remove from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of the rum.
  3. Puree the apricot preserves in a blender with 1 tablespoon of water and strain out the chunks by passing the puree through a small sieve. Transfer the preserves to a small saucepan and bring them to a boil over low heat, stirring. Boil for 2 minutes, or until thickened, then remove from the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of rum.
  4. With a pastry brush, soak the cake layer on the cardboard with IA the sugar syrup (be generous or the cake will be dry). Spread 1/3 of the warm apricot preserves over the syrup and top it with the second cake layer. Brush the second layer with the remaining sugar syrup and brush the top and sides with the remaining apricot preserves. Set the cake on a cooling rack or an icing grid set over waxed paper to catch the drips.

TO GLAZE

  1. Bring the sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan and cook until a candy thermometer registers 220 degrees F. Add the chocolate, stir, and cook until a candy thermometer registers 230 degrees F (the "thread" stage). Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir until smooth.
  2. Pour the hot glaze back and forth over the top and sides of the cake. Be generous as you pour so that the sides get covered, because the glaze can't be moved once it is on the cake. If there are any unglazed patches on the sides of the cake, use a small offset spatula to patch the nude spots with more glaze. Let the cake stand for I hour before transferring it to a plate or platter.

Storage:
Keep at room temperature, under a cake dome or an inverted large mixing bowl. Refrigerate only after a couple of days, but bring the cake back to room temperature before serving.

Note: If you are so inclined, write the name Sacher on top of the cake with piping chocolate. Or cover the top with crystallized flowers.




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