15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Holly of Phe/MOM/enon has chosen 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte for the April 14th, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. This recipe marks the beginning of the TWD CHOCOLATE marathon! For the next few weeks, it’s going to be chocolate city around here.

In Baking: From my home to yours, Dorie says if you can push a button you can make this cake. She’s not lying. She got the 15 minute part right, too. This was one of the easiest recipes I’ve made along with the group so far. There are only two or three components: the cake, the chocolate glaze and an optional Almond Whipped Cream.

The recipe calls for Amaretti cookies which are Italian almond macaroons. Dorie’s favorite brand is called Amaretti di Daronno from D.Lazzaroni & Co. that come in a big red tin. My “local” Italian market (30 minutes away) carried a brand of cookies in a big red tin, but I don’t remember if that was the brand or not.

I went with this little bag for about $3.00. Works for me.

Let me tell you, I got freakin’ ADDICTED to these cookies. I’m surprised I had any left to make this cake. I bought them a full week before and each day the supply got lower and lower.

If you can’t find Amaretti Cookies locally, you can easily make your own. Many recipes can be found on the internet. Here’s a couple to get you started, one uses almond paste and one uses ground almonds.

Joy of Baking Amaretti Cookie Recipe – uses Almond Paste and has a nice little write up on amaretti cookies. Including the correct way to pronounce “amaretti”, just in case you wanted to make sure.
Allrecipes Amaretti Cookies – uses Ground Almonds.

I went the Playing Around route and made individual tortes in 4 inch springform pans.

I was pretty happy with this cake. It wasn’t the best version of a chocolate cake I’ve ever had, mainly due to the texture from the ground nuts and cookies that replaced using flour, but I really didn’t mind that too much. I did like the bites better if they had the almond whipped cream so I would definitely recommend making it even though the recipe marks it as “optional”. The boyfriend doesn’t like almonds so he wouldn’t try this one. His loss, my gain (I hope not too literally!).

Thanks to Holly for the pick this week. To check out the recipe, stop by Holly’s blog Phe/MOM/enon.

Next week, Lauren of A BAKING BLOG aka upper eastside chronicle selected Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, pages 410 and 411 of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my home to yours. See you next Tuesday!

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