Nut Torte

|Friday Baking Project|Friday Blog, Holiday Desserts

04/08/2022

One of the keys to Passover Seder desserts is to focus on recipes that don’t require a major substitution for flour. For The Friday Baking Project’s inaugural Passover blog, I present two recipes that fit that requirement. The first, the subject of this blog, is a simple, yet delightful Nut Torte that can be made the day before Seder, sit at room temperature, and be embellished with fresh berries and softly whipped cream.

Frangipane in the recipe provides a unique almond flavor and keeps the cake moist. Cake meal substitutes for the tiny amount of flour in the original recipe.

Nut Torte

Yield: 1 8-inch cake

# of Servings: 8 to 10

Method: Modified creaming

Ingredients ¾ cup + 1 tbl (6 oz / 170 g) Passover Frangipane, room temperature
3 tbl (1 ½ oz / 43 g) sugar
4 egg yolks
¼ cup (2 oz / 57 g) heavy cream¹

6 egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt
½ cup + 2 tbl (4.5 oz / 128 g) sugar

2 cup less 2 tbl (6 oz / 170 g) hazelnut flour
2 cup less 2 tbl (6 oz / 170 g) almond flour, toasted²

Fresh berries, as needed

Optional garnish:
1 cup (8 fl oz) heavy cream, whipped to just soft peaks
2 to 3 tbl sugar

Special equipment needed:

1 8″ cake pan
Handheld or countertop mixer with both paddle and wire whip attachments.

Pre-recipe preparations:

Butter the bottom of the cake pan, line with a parchment circle, butter the entire pan.
Make sure the frangipane is soft
Preheat oven to 350 °F

Directions:

In machine bowl, cream together the frangipane, sugar, egg yolks and heavy cream, beating until very well blended. Transfer to a large metal mixing bowl.
In clean machine bowl, whip the egg whites and salt until soft peaks. Slowly add the sugar, and continue beating to just firm meringue.
Stir ¼ of the egg whites into the frangipane mixture to lighten.
Fold in remaining egg whites along the nut flours.
Pour into cake pan, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until it tests clean.
Remove pan from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes.
Invert pan, remove parchment, then invert cake again so it’s right side up. Let cool.
Dust with powdered sugar right before serving.
Leftover cake may be stored, unrefrigerated, for several days.

Notes:

¹Non-dairy cream substitutes such as Unger’s Whip Non-dairy topping are available. Please note, this recipe has not been tested with any of these products.

²To toast almond flour to a light golden brown: preheat oven to 325 °F. Spread almond flour on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet in a 325 °F oven. Watch closely as almond flour easily burns. Let cool, can be done a day ahead.