Chocolate Raspberry Torte

Ingredients

8 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

7 oz sliced or slivered almonds

1/4 flour

Pinch salt

5 eggs

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup raspberries, plus more for decoration

1/4 raspberry jam

For the Ganache

5 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/2 heavy cream

Start by grinding 1 cup of the almonds in a food processor, or you can place them in a ziplock bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are very finely ground.  The finer the better, really.  The remaining almonds should be kept whole and will be used to garnish the sides of the cake.  Next, melt the butter and chocolate gently and then  set aside to cool.  Then, beat the eggs vigorously; you should be able to notice that they will become lighter in color and will increase some in volume.  While continuing to whisk, slowly add the sugar to the eggs.  Then fold the eggs into the chocolate/butter mixture.  Finally, gently stir in the almonds, flour, and salt.  Then pour the batter into two 8 or 9 inch greased cake pans.  Place in a preheated 325 degree oven for 14 to 16 minutes.  Let these cakes cool for at least half an hour until you attempt to release them from their pans.  

Meanwhile, mash the raspberries until smooth and then mix with the jam/preserves.  Once the cakes are cooled and out of the pans, spread the raspberry preserves between the two layers.  

Place the second layer on top.  

These were the raspberries that we set aside to decorate the cake.  

This is after the bruised ones were mashed up.  

For the ganache, simply melt the chocolate with the cream and whisk until very smooth and glossy.  Then, drizzle the ganache over the cake, making sure to cover the sides.  Next, cover the sides with the almonds, reusing the pieces that fall off to cover other areas.  Finally, take best raspberries and place them around the edge of the cake.  I think it looks nice to leave the center empty so you can see the pure chocolate.  

The cake can be made a day or two in advance if you wish.  Enjoy!

I should also thank Grace, Taylor and Meghan for their help.  

Stuffed Grape Leaves

I made these a long time ago but only just got around to posting them.  Whenever I make these I also like to make a bunch of other mezes because it keeps the meal interesting.  I think I also served baba ghanoush and spanakopita with this.  You can basically add anything you want to the filling.  I kept it simple by using just rice and ground beef, but you could certainly make this vegetarian (or even vegan, but you will lose a considerable amount of flavor if you use water instead of chicken stock to cook them).  

Ingredients

1 jar grape leaves

1/2 lb ground beef

2 1/2 cups rice (I used jasmine, but anything basic will work)

2 tbsp chopped parsley

salt and pepper

Several tbsp butter

1 quart chicken stock

I forgot to take pictures of me making the filling, but it's pretty self-explanatory.  Just brown the beef in a pan until cooked through, season with salt and pepper, then add the rice and parsley.  Note: the rice does not cook now, it will cook in the oven.  Also, this step can be done in advance.  Then, remove the grape leaves from the jar and let soak in a bowl of water for at least an hour (when you buy grape leaves they are soaking in a vinegar-y brine liquid and you want to dilute that as much as possible).  After that, just place a large tbsp of filling on top of a grape leaf, as shown above, and roll it up.  

You do this by first wrapping it from the bottom, then do both the sides, then complete the fold.  It should be done the same way you make a burrito so that the filling doesn't spill out the sides.  

Place them snug in a pan (you can have two layers if they don't fit), and pour chicken stock over the top until it comes about 3/4 of the way up the grape leaves.  

Dot the tops with a couple pats of butter, cover tightly with foil, and place in a 350 degree oven until the rice is tender.  For me, this takes about 1 hour.  

I also served these with a homemade tzatziki sauce.  I'll post the recipe for that soon.  I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the finished dish.  I hope you give this a try.  Enjoy!

Grape Ice Cream with Bitter Orange Cake

I made several ice creams/sorbets this summer to deal with the heat.  I had originally intended to keep this just a sorbet without any dairy but I thought some added cream would help the texture.  The cake  that I paired this with was taken from Paul Bertolli's book, Cooking by Hand.  It's not so much a book of recipes but technique and it has a large section dedicated to homemade charcuterie.  

 I just picked the darkest grapes I could find.  I suppose you could use green grapes but I don't think it would pair well with the cake.  

 I had about a pound.  Just throw them all in a big pot.  

Meanwhile, zest some oranges with a vegetable peeler.   

 Throw a few strips in with the grapes as well as about 1/4 cup sugar (to start with) and a touch of orange juice and place on medium heat.  Cook until the grapes start to fall apart, about 10-15 minutes.  

I'll post the full recipe later for the cake but part of the wet ingredients include whole pureed orange.   

This was the final cake batter.  Again, I'll post the recipe in another post.   

Once the grapes have released their juice, press them through a fine strainer, pressing firmly to extract as much as possible.   

Then add about a cup or so of heavy cream and refrigerate until properly chilled.  This could be done overnight.  Then just place in your ice cream maker and churn until the desired texture.  

 The finished orange cake.  

Cut the cake in squares and slice each down the middle to make a little ice cream sandwich.  I wanted to be fancy so I made both a strawberry and mango coulis to drizzle over it.