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Torta Caprese

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Torta Caprese

Torta Caprese

Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate; I vowed to eat it everyday and in one form or another, I do. I absolutely ADORE dark chocolate and now that the medical field has found it healthy, I have a guilt-free addiction. Life is so good!

Probably like many of you, I have a bunch of gluten-free friends and coming up with yummy desserts that taste good aren’t always the easiest feat for me (I do make pasta for a living afterall). So when I played around with a recipe of a “torta caprese”, translation, chocolate and almond cake, which I learned in my beloved Italy, and it tasted good, I was completely jazzed!

For those of you who don’t know what torta caprese is, it’s this delicious chocolate almond cake from the island of Capri (doesn’t that fact just make you want to indulge)? The torta, it is a simple cake and was first created by the hospitality industry of the island primarily for tourists. It is traditional to the area and makes for a wonderful story to tell when you serve this little bit of chocolate heaven.

I usually top it with powdered sugar because I love a rustic looking cake but if you feel so compelled, I think whip cream would work beautifully especially with a little orange flower water or lemon zest.

So, when you feel like escaping for dessert in Capri, prepare this tort and transport yourself to the island….

Torta Caprese
 
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Ingredients
  • 10.5 Ounces - Dark Chocolate
  • 6 - Large Eggs, Separated
  • 1¾ + ⅛ Cup - Sugar
  • 1½ tsp. - Vanilla Extract
  • 1¾ + ⅛ Cup of Almond Flour
  • 10.5 Ounces of Butter, Melted & Cooled
  • Powdered Sugar for Dusting
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. and lightly grease a 9 inch spring form pan.
  2. In a double broiler over medium heat, melt chocolate and butter together. Stir and remove from heat.
  3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla extract until pale and thick.
  4. Fold the chocolate, butter and almond flour into the egg yolk mixture.
  5. Use a clean bowl to beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold these into the chocolate almond mixture.
  6. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of center with a little "fudgyness"
  7. Cool 20 minutes, then remove from the tin.
  8. Allow to cool to room temperature, then dust the top with powdered sugar or cocoa. Serve with whip cream

Torta Caprese

 

 

Hazelnut Cake with Pear and Ricotta

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It was a rainy Saturday and I wasn’t in the mood to clean, (who ever is?) and so often my solution is to dream up a new recipe and whisk myself away in creativity for a few hours, it definitely helps my soul and eases my guilty conscious.

On this particular day, I decided try my hand at a gluten-free dessert. There is only one problem, I LOVE cake and normally cake needs that one minor ingredient, flour and that one minor ingredient isn’t gluten-free….at least the cakes I love. Dang, maybe my dessert with be glutton-free instead since I don’t feel guilty about being a glutton……now that could be a new trend, GLUTTON-FREE DESSERTS! Brilliant!

Okay, back on focus…..so time to think of some other type of flour.  I thought about all the various kinds of nuts I love, which is all of them, but I particularly love hazelnuts, I mean I LOVE them so I decided to grind up hazelnuts for my “cake flour”. If your not as obsessed with hazelnuts, this cake would be equally amazing with ground up almonds or cashews, just fire up your imagination.

Now that I figured my cake out, I wanted to make a “filling” that would mimic something between semifreddo and gelato, how can you go wrong with that desire? I make a delicious homemade ricotta and since pears were in season  I decided to combine pears, homemade ricotta cheese, whip cream, pear brandy, and sugar together and created a creamy filling that should have been illegal! It ROCKED! Seriously, it was a miracle of flavors.

The last step that needed to happen was to take the two cake layers, gob this yummy creamy filling in between, stick it in the freezer, and cross my fingers that it “sets up”. If this worked, I was sure to eat the whole thing.

I’m not sure if that was a blessing or a curse as I really didn’t need to promise myself an entire dessert, after all I was blowing off cleaning, probably shouldn’t reward that or should I? Anyway, it worked and it worked beautifully! Good thing the bet was to myself and not someone else who would love to see me eat a whole cake into oblivion…..

So here’s a New Years cheer to indulgence, days without cleaning, and glutton-free desserts….

Hazelnut Ricotta Pear Cake
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • For the cake:
  • 2 Cups whole hazelnuts, finely ground
  • 6 Large eggs
  • ⅔ Cup sugar
  • 7 Tbsp butter, melted
  • For the pears:
  • 2 Bartlett or William pears, peeled, cored, and diced or thinly sliced
  • ½ Cup sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 Tbsp pear brandy
  • For the syrup:
  • ⅓ Cup sugar
  • 3 Tbsp pear brandy
  • For the filling:
  • 17 oz ricotta cheese, preferably homemade
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • For the ricotta cheese:
  • 6 cups organic whole milk
  • 2 cups organic heavy cream
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 T organic white wine vinegar
  • For cranberries:
  • 1 bag cranberries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
Instructions
  1. Make the ricotta: In a saucepan on stove over medium heat, put in the milk, cream, salt, and vinegar. Bring to a medium heat and boil where it starts to separate. Put in a mesh colander over a bowl until liquid is drained
  2. Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9 ½ -inch springform pans.
  3. Grind the hazelnuts in a mini food processor until very fine.
  4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on high speed for 15 minutes, until the mixture has quadrupled in volume. Gently fold in the hazelnuts and flour with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the butter. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until firm to the touch. Set aside.
  5. Make the pears: In a small saucepan combine the pears, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch and simmer over medium-low heat until the pears are soft. Remove from the heat, stir in the brandy, and let cool to room temperature. Set aside.
  6. Make the syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and ½ cup water and bring to a boil. Stir in brandy.
  7. Make the filling: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla for at least 5 minutes, until creamy.
  8. Meanwhile, beat the cream until firm peaks form. Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture. Fold in the cooled pear mixture.
  9. Assemble the dessert: Remove one of the cake layers from the pan and place on a serving platter large enough to hold the outer ring of the springform pan. Brush the cake with one-half of the syrup to moisten it. Pile the filling in the center of the cake and put the springform ring back over the cake.
  10. Gently spread the filling to the edges and then top with the second layer of cake. Brush the remaining syrup over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer until set, about 2 hours. Remove the springform ring and refrigerate until ready to serve.
  11. For cranberry decorations:
  12. On stovetop in a saucepan, put sugar and water and heat until sugar is dissolved. Pull off and let rest 10 minutes. Put cranberries in a bowl and pour sugar/water mixture over the top. Cover and put in fridge for 2 hours. When ready to decorate, take cranberries out of mixture and roll in sugar to coat. This may take a few times and then let dry on a tray lined with parchment paper.

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Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Flourless Cake

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This is just one of those cakes that you can keep stashed at a continuum, the perfect balance of lemon, almond, and raw sugar. All to satisfy that mid-afternoon or late evening sweet tooth attack. Another awesome addition (if it’s a concern) it’s gluten-free. To me, that’s a free pass to “GO” for a second helping!

I stumbled across this recipe from Cakelets and Doilies (www.cakeletsanddoilies) while looking for inspiration to re-create a recipe my Italian great aunt used to make every summer during my childhood on our annual visits.

I fondly remember those trips and the family gathering at her modest home where she lived with my grandpa, her brother. Its one of those great little houses, yellow with a white picket fence, front porch, big backyard with a garden, and a basement. The basement was my grandpas “man cave” where he brewed wine and grappa but I’ll leave that venture for another post!

The inside was decorated with religious pictures and favorite saints and the doors were sliding accordion-style screens. The color was simple and the furniture was covered in fabrics of various patterns. She always had bowl after bowl of licorice candies with chewy coatings, the penny ones, pretty colors and all different sizes and shapes but in the middle was black licorice, my favorite.

There was always one evening where she invited the entire Italian side of my mom’s family to dinner and prayed for no rain; so thankful for those houseful of saints, I’m sure they pulled some extra weight when asking for the favor. There had to be 30+ of us and if we were to be forced inside, it would be similar to the game “how many people can you fit in your VW bug”? Yeah, you remember the one and some of them I didn’t feel like getting so “up close and personal” if you know what I mean.

The meal was always the same, homemade Italian red rice with meat sauce, roasted chicken, homemade bread, salad, and desserts. There were always 2 store bought cakes, a chocolate and a white with gooey Crisco frosting (a super artery clogger but a LOVE when you’re a kid) and then the lemon ricotta cake from her childhood. I always ate the frosting from the store bought cakes to not hurt her feelings but I was smart enough to hold out and be first in line for the homemade lemon wonder.

I still think my favorite part (other than the cake) was bolting through the front door to be met with the intense aroma of the red meat sauce that filled the air and brought me comfort and satisfaction immediately. Imagine waiting 365 days each year for the initial hit…now that’s a food addict.

It usually took her 2 days to make the dinner and we ate it in 2 minutes. Now I personally understand what a complement to a cook that really is, no wonder she never changed the menu.

So here’s to my Aunt Mary, I’m sure there was some different “secret ingredients” but this is as close to perfect as I remember. Hope you’re smiling from above….

Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Flourless Cake
 
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This is great the next day, after it’s completely chilled, and the flavor and texture seems to get better with time. Serve it with a glass of Vin Santo or Moscato.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1⅓ cups cane sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
  • ¼ cup lemon zest
  • 4 eggs, separated and at room temperature
  • 2½ cups almond meal
  • 10½ oz fresh ricotta
  • Flaked almonds, to decorated
  • Icing sugar, for dusting
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line the base and sides of a 9 inch round springform pan with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Place the butter, 1 cup cane sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon zest in an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until pale and creamy. Scrap down the sides of the bowl, then gradually add the egg yolks, one at a time, continuing to beat until fully combined. Add the almond meal and beat to combine. Fold ricotta through the almond meal mixture.
  3. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl with a hand-held electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar to the egg whites mixture and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gently fold a third of the egg whites into the cake mixture. Repeat with the rest of the egg whites.
  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the tops with a palette knife, decorate the cake with almond flakes, and bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked and firm to touch. Allow to cool completely in the cake tin. Dust with icing sugar to serve.