Do you ever make a recipe and love it so much that you binge make it at least three times in two weeks? Please tell me I’m not alone……
I promise you if you make this once, you’ll be finding reasons to make it again so when I was asked by the good folks from Fields to help them celebrate their 6th anniversary I knew exactly what I was going to do with the last of the season’s strawberries.
I first saw this torte over on Charlie’s blog Hotly Spiced and if you hop over there you’ll find a hilarious back story to what happened when she made this – although Charlie certainly wasn’t seeing the funny side at the time.
Neither was Richard the first time I made this. We’d been invited over to his cricket team’s end of year party. Rich being the only non-Indian player on the team we were super exited at the prospect of a buffet lunch cooked by the wives but I was feeling the pressure a bit as I was the only one who had been asked to bring along dessert. For 18 people.
The only obvious thing to do was to make something I’d never done before. Just like all the contestants on Masterchef seem to do. Have you noticed that?
As a back up I took along an apple strudel just in case of an emergency – like with Charlie!
Lunch was predictably fantastic but when the table was cleared, my torte and strudel were sitting there looking very pretty but being studiously ignored. Everyone was politely holding back so Rich stood up and I formed a queue of one at the torte, which suddenly turned into a queue of ten.
Taking a bite I was pleasantly surprised. It was good.
I know, another Masterchef 101 error not trying the food before plating up! How many times does that happen?!
Giving myself a virtual pat on the back I looked up to see people going back for seconds! Rich was still standing there doing the honours cutting the torte and with the last slice on the plate, someone went up for thirds and it was all over. Finished.
Rich was left with an empty plate and hadn’t had a single mouthful.
Like everyone else who hadn’t been quick enough, he had to make do with the strudel – which wasn’t so bad!
This torte is a total doddle to make.
Four ingredients.
Ten minutes prep.
I’ve made a couple of changes to the original recipe – predictably I cut back on the sugar but added grated plain chocolate. I made it once using a sugar substitute and I wouldn’t advise it unless you like your meringue tortes to taste like cardboard. Totally inedible.
What I totally forgot to do before taking the photos was to sprinkle with grated chocolate on top so please don’t you forget.
Hazelnut & Chocolate Meringue Torte {gluten free}
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A super recipe to have up your sleeve when you want to impress because it’s so easy to make and looks amazing filled with cream and berries.
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- 6 egg whites
- ⅓ cup caster sugar {Note 1}
- 1¼ cups toasted hazelnuts
- 20g grated plain chocolate + extra for decoration
- 150g mascarpone cream
- 150g whipping cream
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- fresh strawberries or whatever berries are in season
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150C. Grease 2 x 20cm round tins {I used Victoria sponge tins} with butter and line with baking paper
- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form
- Beat in half the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks
- Fold in the remaining sugar, nuts and grated chocolate with a metal spoon, being careful not to deflate the egg whites too much {something I struggle with, but it still turns out fine!}
- Divide between the cake tins {Note 2} and place in the oven for 40 minutes. The cakes should be dry and crispy at this point
- Turn out onto a wire rack and when cool, remove the paper. {Note 3}
- Whip the mascarpone, whipping cream, vanilla essence and maple syrup together. Use a little to smear on the serving plate and place one cake on top.
- Cover the cake with half the cream, decorate with strawberries and top with the other cake.
- Cover in remaining cream. Decorate with strawberries and sprinkle with grated chocolate.
Notes
{Note 2} I always weigh the tins so I know they have a good chance of being the same size coming out. I’m a little OCD like that!
{Note 3} I’ve assembled the torte, cream and berries ahead of time and on the day and I prefer to assemble it on the day – but I make the actual torte the day before to save on time.
3.2.2925
So shock horror. A recipe with cream. And sugar. And chocolate.
No, the girl hasn’t gone mad. A little of what you fancy does you good don’t you agree?
Disclaimer: Some produce supplied by Fields but all opinions are my own.
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