Argentine · Dessert
Torta Rogel
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners.
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour
- 5 large egg yolks
- 60 g unsalted butter, soft
- 30 ml whole milk
- 15 ml brandy
- 3 g fine salt
- 700 g dulce de leche repostero
- 150 g caster sugar, for the meringue
- 50 ml water
- 90 g pasteurised egg white, about 3 whites
Equipment
Torch
The skills inside
Whipping a meringueThe brûlée torchSugar stages & caramelResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · alcohol
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
- Work the flour, yolks, butter, milk, brandy and salt into a smooth firm dough and rest it wrapped for 30 minutes, until it stops pulling back from the pin. 30 min
- Divide into 8, roll each piece into a 20 cm disc about 1.5 mm thick, the depth of two coins stacked, prick all over, and bake at 190C (375F) for 5 minutes to 7 minutes, until pale gold and dry. They crisp as they cool. 5 min
- Stack the cold discs with about 100 g of dulce de leche in each of the seven gaps, pressing gently so the caramel reaches the edge all round.
- Boil the sugar and water to 118C (244F), then pour it in a thin thread down the side of the bowl into whites whipped to soft peak, beating until the bowl is only just warm and the meringue holds a hooked peak.
- Pile the meringue over the top, pull it up into points with the back of a spoon, and scorch the tips with a blowtorch.
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.
Sugar stages & caramel 53 recipes
- Nothing is stirred once it is boiling, and any crystals clinging to the side of the pan are brushed down rather than left to fall in.
- Judged by temperature or by a tested stage rather than by time: consecutive stages are a few degrees apart and look identical in the pan.
- Colour is read off the heat and in good light, remembering that sugar keeps darkening after the flame is out.
- Stopped decisively at the point wanted: off the heat and into the next liquid or onto a cold surface, rather than left to coast in a hot pan.
- The result is clear and smooth rather than grainy, cloudy, or seized into a solid mass.
Where it goes wrong It was stirred after coming to the boil, or a stray crystal from the side of the pan fell back in. One crystal seeds the whole pan and the syrup turns grainy within seconds, and once sugar has crystallised the only cure is more water and starting the whole thing again.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Tawny Port
- Also Right
- PX Sherry or bourbon
- From the Taps
- Barleywine
- Zero-Proof
- Cold-brew coffee
Caramel echoing caramel: oxidative aging built the same flavors into the glass that the pan built into the plate.
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