Chocolate Amaretti Torte
Chocolate Amaretti Torte (We first got this from Delia Smith who had been given it by Derek Fuller. We’ve made several small changes over the years)
Ingredients
475g good dark chocolate
5 tbsps brandy
140g liquid glucose
600mls double cream AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
100g Amaretti biscuits
a flan dish or shallow cake tin 27 cms across (We like this dessert wide and shallow. You could certainly use a smaller tin and have the whole thing deeper as Delia Smith suggests, a 23cm tin))
some cling film or parchment to line the dish with.
How to do it
Line your dish with cling film or parchment. If your tin has straight sides you can just line the base.
Dish lined with cling film
Put the biscuits into a strong plastic bag and crush them lightly with a rolling pin. You can leave some of them a bit bigger to add to the texture. Cover the base of the dish with the biscuit crumbs.
Cover the base with crushed crumbs
Put a bowl over just simmering water and add the chocolate, broken into pieces.
Melting the chocolate over a pan of just simmering water
When it is just melted, add the glucose syrup and the brandy and stir until blended and glossy.
Brandy and glucose syrup added ready to blend
All blended
Leave the chocolate mixture to cool down. You need it just warm.
While it does so, whip the cream.I was always taught, that to whip successfully remember the following “Cold cream, warm whites” For this recipe that does not apply! You need to have the cream at room temperature. OTHERWISE THE MIXTURE SETS TOO MUCH
Whip the cream carefully until it very slightly thickens
Fold 1/3 of the cream into the chocolate mixture
One third of the cream ready to be folded into the blended chocolate, brandy and glucose syrup
Folding the cream in very carefully
Now fold that mixture into the rest of the cream.
Adding the chocolate blend to the cream
Almost blended
It’s almost impossible not to taste at this point! Please do! It’s delicious!
When it is all smoothly blended pour it over the crumbs.
Pouring the mixture onto the crushed Amaretti biscuit base
Spread out the mixture evenly. Cover with cling film and chill overnight or freeze.
Torte ready to cover and freeze
When it comes to serving, just upend it onto your chosen dish and peel off the cling film. If you used a straight sided tin and lined only the base, run a knife around the side and upend it as before. It is a well-behaved dessert and will allow you to do this!
Dust the top with sieved cocoa powder, over a template if you like as we did here.
Turned out and decorated with a dusting of cocoa
Serve in small slices as it is very rich with some chilled pouring cream. It won’t last long!