Signature Desserts

Read our interview with Patty Denny Owner and Chocolatier, Telluride Truffle.

 Chocolate Apricot Torte

Torte
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup water
1 ¼ cups plus 2 T sugar
11 oz. fine quality semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
8 large eggs, separated
¼ cup Amaretto
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cups sliced almonds, ground fine

Glaze
5 oz. fine quality semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Amaretto

Torte Directions:
Simmer apricots in the water with ½ cup of the sugar for 20 minutes or until the mixture is syrupy and the apricots are plump.  In a food processor purée the mixture.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Butter a 10 inch round 3” deep cake pan (not a springform) and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Boil water in a sauce pan.  Turn off flame and put a metal pan over it with the chocolate and butter.  Stir occasionally until smooth.  If you need more heat to melt the chocolate, reheat the water, but be very careful not to burn the chocolate.  Burning chocolate is so easy to do!

Beat the egg yolks and 7 tablespoons of the remaining sugar until thick and pale.  In a large bowl, stir together the chocolate mixture, the apricot purée, Amaretto, flour and the ground almonds and fold in the egg yolk mixture.

Beat egg whites with the remaining 7 tablespoons of sugar to soft peak.  Fold one quarter of them into the chocolate mixture to lighten it and then add the remaining egg whites gently but thoroughly.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and lightly cover with foil.  Transfer it to a roasting pan and fill roasting pan with hot water until it is one inch up the side of the cake pan.  Bake the torte in the middle of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the edges are set and the middle is barely set.  The torte sets more firmly when it cools.  Cool the torte completely in the pan on a rack.  Invert it onto the rack set over a baking sheet and discard the parchment.

Glaze Directions:
Again put that metal bowl over the newly boiled water, melt the chocolate with the cream, butter and Amaretto stirring until the glaze is smooth.

Pour the glaze over the torte.  Garnish the side of the torte with sliced almonds and transfer to a cake plate.

Notes for Success:

• Don’t burn the chocolate when melting.  Chocolate burns at 120 degrees which is warm to the touch.  If it feels hot to the touch – it’s burned.
• Before you beat the eggs have everything ready.  Once you have the eggs beaten, especially the whites, you need to move very efficiently.  Once you get the air in the eggs, you want to keep as much of it as possible.
• I always recommend organic eggs and cream.  The organic eggs are stronger and organic cream tastes fantastic.  Not to mention that the animals from which these ingredients came are happier.  And happy energy gets into everything.  The movie “Water with Chocolate” made that very clear didn’t it?
• If you use a springform pan – water can get into the cake.  However, if that’s all you got, wrap the outside of it in one large piece of foil.
• You can’t peek at this cake.  In the middle of baking if you lift that foil, the whole thing could fall.