Caramel-Cloaked Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

"Make chocolate ganache first; let it cool while you bake the cake. It all can be made a day ahead, just make sure you have a candy thermometer. Found this in Sunset, Nov. 2002. I didn't include any of the cooling times because they all vary. The cake is awesome and worth the time put into it."
 
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Ready In:
3hrs
Ingredients:
13
Serves:
10-12
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ingredients

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directions

  • CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

  • In a 2-3 quart pan over low heat, stir 1-1/2 cups chopped chocolate and 1 cup whipping cream until melted and smoothly blended, 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Let cool, stirring occasionally, until ganache no longer flows when pan is tilted, about 2 to 2-1/2 hours.
  • CAKE:

  • Preheat oven 350ºF.
  • Place nuts in a 10x15-inch baking pan; roast, shaking pan occasionally, until golden beneath skins, about 10-12 minutes.
  • Pour nuts into towel and rub to remove loose skins.
  • Let cool at least 15 minutes.
  • Set aside 8 completely skinned nuts.
  • Whirl remaining nuts in food processor until finely ground.
  • In a bowl, with mixer on high speed, beat egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar, scraping bowl occasionally, until very thick and light colored, about 4 minutes.
  • Stir in ground nuts, bread or cake crumbs, and vanilla extract.
  • In a large bowl, with clean beaters, beat egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks.
  • Gradually, add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue to beat until egg whites hold short, distinct peaks, about 3 minutes total.
  • Add half the whites to nut mixture and stir to blend well.
  • Gently fold in remaining whites, spread batter level in buttered and floured 9-inch cheesecake pan with removable rim.
  • Bake until cake is golden brown and springs back in the center when lightly pressed, 25-30 minutes.
  • Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
  • Run a knife between cake and pan rim.
  • Lat cake cool on a rack about 45 minutes.
  • With a long serrated knife, split cake in half horizontally.
  • Gently slide a baking sheet under top cake layer and lift it off.
  • Spread bottom cake layer evenly with chocolate ganache, slide top layer, cut side down, back in place over ganache.
  • CARAMEL CLOAK:

  • In a 3-4 quart pan, combine 1 cup each firmly packed brown sugar, light corn syrup and whipping cream; 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
  • Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and stir occasionally until mixture reaches 240ºF, 12-14 minutes.
  • Pour into a 1 qt glass measure and stir occasionally until mixture cools to 150ºF, about 25 minutes.
  • Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
  • Pour over cake immediately.
  • Set cake on rack in a 12x17-inch pan.
  • Pour about1-1/2 cups warm caramel cloak over cake--enough to coat it--starting at the center and spiraling to edges, letting caramel drip down sides to cover completely.
  • Arrange reserved hazelnuts evenly around top edge of cake.
  • Let stand until caramel stops dripping and it is firm enough to cut, about 30 minutes.
  • Scrape caramel drips from pan back into the measuring cup containing caramel cloak.
  • Cook, uncovered in microwave at 30% power, stirring occasionally, until warm and fluid, about 2 minutes.
  • Pour into a nice gravy boat for serving.
  • Place cake on plate.
  • Cut into wedges with a sharp knife.
  • Offer remaining caramel cloak to spoon over portions.
  • ENJOY, YOU'VE EARNED IT!

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for&nbsp;it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love &amp; beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha &amp; my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I&nbsp;was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations &amp; a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree &amp; wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)&gt;&nbsp;</p> <p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&amp;R Block and worked simultaneously&nbsp;as a Supervisor in 2 offices&nbsp;for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry />&nbsp;All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba &amp; Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old &amp; used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted &amp; was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw &amp; from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p> <p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private&nbsp;bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic!&nbsp;<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket&nbsp;my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile />&nbsp;Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor &amp; the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p> <p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
 
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