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Chocolate Torte
1 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 egg yolks, beaten 3 squares chocolate, melted 1 cup cold riced potato (unseasoned) 1 cup finely chopped walnuts grated rind of 1 lemon 2 cups pastry flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 egg whites, beaten stiff Cream shortening with sugar, add egg yolks and chocolate. Add potato, nuts, grated lemon rind and remaining dry ingredients sifted together. Lastly fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in a thin sheet in a moderate oven (about 350 degrees F.) 20 or 25 minutes. Serve with sweetened whipped cream. Twelve generous servings.
A potato torte in the central European manner, translated into American pantry terms. Most of what needs translating is the chocolate, the flour and the pan.
- The potato is the pointOne cup of plain boiled potato, riced while warm and cooled before use, keeps the crumb moist and slightly dense. It must be unseasoned — no butter, milk or salt — and it must be cold, or it will melt the creamed shortening. Leftover mashed potato will not substitute cleanly because of the added fat and liquid.
- Squares of chocolateA square meant one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so three squares is 3 oz. Melt gently and let it cool to barely warm before beating it into the creamed mixture.
- ShorteningIn a book of this vintage this means hydrogenated vegetable shortening or lard; butter works and tastes better, though the crumb will be slightly firmer once chilled.
- Pastry flourPastry flour is softer than all-purpose, around 8-9% protein. Substitute by measuring 2 cups all-purpose, removing 4 tablespoons and replacing them with cornstarch, or use cake flour plus a spoonful of all-purpose.
- "A thin sheet"Bake it in a shallow rectangular pan, such as a jelly-roll or half-sheet pan (roughly 13 x 18 in), so the layer stays thin; that is what the short 20-25 minute bake suits. A 9 x 13 pan will work but will need longer and gives a taller, cakier result.
- OvenThe original already names the number: 350F, moderate. Test at 20 minutes; the surface should spring back and a pick come out with a few moist crumbs.
- Folding the whitesThe batter is stiff with potato and nuts. Slacken it with a third of the beaten whites stirred in outright, then fold the rest in two additions so the leavening survives.
- ServingTwelve generous servings, as the recipe says, means cutting the cooled sheet into twelve pieces; the size depends on the pan used. It improves after several hours, the potato helping keep it from drying, and it should hold two or three days covered.
Potato cake is a genuine tradition rather than only a Depression-era makeshift, though it served both purposes: cooked starch holds water, so a cake built on riced potato stays moist longer than a plain butter cake, and the trick is associated with central European torte baking. Chocolate potato cake recipes turn up in United States community and manufacturer cookbooks in the earlier twentieth century, often with walnuts, cinnamon or citrus rind to carry the flavour. The lemon rind here does that job, sharpening the unsweetened chocolate. It is a cake assembled largely from what a kitchen already has on hand, including yesterday's potatoes.