Oregon · Dessert
Oregon Hazelnut Torte
- Advanced
- 2 h
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, richness that coats and comforts, leaving a faint perfume.
Ingredients
- 300g Oregon hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
- 6 eggs, separated
- 200g sugar
- 50g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- For the cream: 300ml cream, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla
- Toasted hazelnuts to finish
The skills inside
Whipping a meringueDry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nutsThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Toast the hazelnuts, rub off the skins in a towel, and grind to a fine meal.
- Beat the yolks with three-quarters of the sugar until pale and thick, then fold in the ground nuts, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and salt.
- Whip the whites with the remaining sugar to soft peaks and fold through in three additions.
- Bake in two lined 23cm pans at 175C for 22-25 min until springy. Cool completely. 25 min
- Whip the cream and sandwich the layers, then top with more cream and chopped hazelnuts.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Whipping a meringue 40 recipes
- Bowl and whisk are clean and dry with no trace of fat or yolk. Grease prevents the foam outright, and there is no recovering a bowl that had it partway through.
- The sugar went in gradually once the whites were already foaming, rather than all at once at the start.
- No grit: a little rubbed between finger and thumb feels smooth, so the sugar has dissolved into the foam rather than sitting in it.
- Stiff peaks means the tip stands with a slight bow when the whisk lifts, and the bowl can be tipped without the mass moving in it.
- Glossy and smooth rather than chalky or dull, with no liquid gathering underneath it in the bowl.
Where it goes wrong It was whipped past stiff peaks. A minute beyond glory the protein network tightens and tears, the foam turns grainy and matte, water weeps out beneath it, and folding that into anything gives a mixture that collapses on the way to the oven.
Dry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nuts 70 recipes
- A single layer on dry metal with nothing added: no fat, and nothing else sharing the pan or the tray and competing for the heat.
- It is kept moving: shaken, stirred, or turned. Anything left still scorches on the face touching the metal while the rest of it is barely warm.
- It is judged by smell before sight: once it is fragrant there are seconds left, not minutes, and the nose reaches that point well before the colour does.
- It leaves the pan the instant it is done, onto a cold surface. A hot pan keeps toasting whatever stays in it, and carryover here is the difference between done and ruined.
- The colour is even and light rather than patchy, with nothing black at the edges: one scorched piece taints the whole quantity it is ground into.
Where it goes wrong It was left alone for a moment while something else was attended to. Dry heat has no margin: the pieces against the metal go from fragrant to acrid inside a minute, and the bitterness cannot be picked back out of a ground mixture.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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