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Walnut Torte
8 eggs, well beaten 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 squares bitter chocolate, melted 1 cup cracker crumbs 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup walnuts, chopped grated rind of 1 lemon 1 1/2 cup citron, cut fine 2 tablespoons sherry (ginger ale or grape juice) Add sugar to the well beaten eggs, stirring continuously. Melt chocolate and add to the eggs (be careful it is not hot enough to coagulate the eggs). Mix the baking powder with the cracker crumbs and cinnamon. Add to the egg mixture; fold in nuts, lemon and citron. Add flavoring, bake in a greased pan in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. Serves 6.
A flourless crumb torte in the Central European style, leavened almost entirely by beaten egg. A few of its terms have shifted since the book was printed.
- Moderate ovenIn cookbooks of this period that usually means somewhere around 350 to 375F; 350F is the safe reading. Thirty minutes suits a shallow pan; a deeper one will need longer, until the center springs back and a tester comes out with only a moist crumb.
- Bitter chocolateThis means unsweetened baking chocolate, 1 ounce per square, so 3 ounces total. Semisweet is not a substitute here without cutting the sugar.
- The hinge: chocolate temperatureThe warning in the text is the whole trick. Let the melted chocolate cool to barely warm, then add it in a thin stream while stirring, or it will set the egg into visible threads that no amount of folding will smooth out.
- Cracker crumbsPlain unsalted soda crackers or matzo, rolled fine, not seasoned or buttered crackers. Something on the order of two dozen or more saltines makes a cup, depending how finely they are crushed. They stand in for flour and give the torte its close, slightly chewy body.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in tubs near the holiday baking supplies or from spice merchants. Candied orange or lemon peel is the nearest common substitute. The quantity reads as 1 1/2 cups, which is a great deal against 1 cup of crumbs; a cup is plenty if you want the chocolate to come through.
- Beating the eggsEight whole eggs beaten with the sugar until pale and thick, at least five minutes with a mixer, are what lift this cake. There is no separate whipping of whites, so do not stop early; the ribbon stage matters more than the teaspoon of baking powder.
- PanA greased 9-inch springform or a 9-inch square pan suits the volume. Line the base with parchment as well as greasing it, since a crumb batter with this much candied fruit tends to stick.
- YieldSix is optimistic for a torte built on eight eggs. Cut in small squares or thin wedges it serves 10 to 12, which is closer to how a torte is eaten.