My father used to bake desserts from a fairly narrow repertoire that he executed beautifully. Sachertorte was one of them. I didn’t particularly like it (no sweet tooth) but you have made me very nostalgic. Yours is gorgeous!!
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Thank you. How lovely that you have some sweet memories attached to this cake!
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would you share your recipe? It looks amazing!
I usually do this recipe and make dinner rolls out of it for thanksgiving (where my SIL will demolish an entire pan of them. I make two). This time, we were out of plain ol’ white bread and I was bored and I’d never tried making a the traditional shokupan loaf before.
The result:
The shaping isn’t perfect, but it’s soft and delicious. I was in a bit of a rush, so it might be a touch underproved. It should be taller. The dough is VERY soft and sticky (thanks to the tangzhong) so getting those 4 rolls just so is tricky.
If cleanup wasn’t such a pain in the ass I’d make more sandwich bread myself and forget about buying it at all, but as good as homemade is, sometimes it’s not worth saving the $4 if the tradeoff is having to clean the standmixer bowl and counter and loafpan etc. etc.
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I used the cake recipe here adding 1/8 tsp salt and using salted butter. The addition of cocoa keeps it from being authentic technically as the real deal only contains chocolate.
I baked at 350° and 35 minutes was enough. I used 57% chocolate.
And this glaze, which is less sweet and more chocolatey than others I saw (most classic versions use more sugar than chocolate):
I think in the future I will make Esbieta’s version completely (with added salt 
). She is very good about desserts that aren’t too sweet, and she gives a range of sugar to use here citing that she likes the lower amounts. I also really like her glaze. It’s not very sweet on its own. Neither is the cake that I linked. Together though I found they were a bit sweeter than I like. So if I make Esbieta’s version of the cake I think I’ll get a dessert that is just sweet enough for me. Her advice about making sure the jam is hot and letting it absorb into the cake halves is spot on. She really loves Sacher torte, so she’s no doubt worked on that recipe.
Oh and for my particular jam, I added no water because it’s nowhere near as thick as Esbieta’s.
Joconde’s Baking has great recipes that are also not too sweet, and if you prefer to use ganache as she does her cake should be perfect.
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Oh that looks amazing…
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just saw that you included the recipe link in the original post. Of course you did. It’s Shellybean, the baking queen! Thank you.
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Looks impressive to me despite your caveats! Also, that slicer looks impressive. What is it?
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J. A. Henkles International, Forged Synergy Stainless Steel, 16006-200 (8")
It’s my partner’s. She’s had it for about a zillion years.
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Alice Medrich’s low fat chocolate pound cake to use up some whites. I made half a recipe and reduced the sugar down to 250 grams. I would still reduce it a further 50 grams. I doubled the salt. The cake is really good other than the sugar could still be brought down.
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Looking for a gluten-free cookie to mail a friend (with celiac) for her birthday… something small batch. This appeared in my IG feed: https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/04/almond-horn-cookies/ . Do you think that I am deluding myself in thinking that these would mail well?
rstuart - if you’re confident she likes marzipan/almond paste, go for it. Mailing success is all about the packaging. For these, I’d cradle each cookie in parchment or waxed paper, place the set in a ziplock so they can’t move around, then cushion that in a box with crumpled parchment or waxed paper. Put that box in a sturdy mailing box.
If chocolate is her go-to, look at this Chocolate Espresso Snowball recipe posted here on HO by “Wonderwoman”
This GF Almond Nutella cookie is soft and brownie-like. From CH poster “Nothingswrong”
ALMOND BROWNIE COOKIES
Makes about 2 dozen
-1 cup (very fine) almond flour
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
-1/3 cup cocoa powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/4 cup Nutella
-2 large egg whites
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-sliced toasted almonds for garnish (optional)
Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and add Nutella, egg whites, and vanilla. Stir dough until thoroughly mixed.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving a few inches between (they will spread). Press almonds into centers if desired.
Bake @ 325 for 10-15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let sit on sheets for 5-10 minutes to set fully (they will be very soft when you remove them–be careful). Let cool completely on wire racks.
They will stay soft and chewy for a couple days at room temp, or you can stick them in the freezer to enjoy any time
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Thank you!!!
is there any way you could translate the proportions for the glaze?
thank you!
It’s 200 g chocolate (minimum 70%)
120 g sugar
120 ml water
It’s all in the description box when you click “more”
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This looks so good! Thanks for the tips.
For anyone interested, I found a link:
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Shellybean - have you experimented with natural cocoa vs the Dutch Processed listed in the recipe? The text version MuchkinRedux cited has 3 exclamation marks after do not substitute, but the King Arthur baking site seems to say that for a recipe like this (which already has both baking soda and baking powder) the only impact will be visually more-pale cake
I haven’t since I only have natural cocoa once in a while and only have Dutch process atm, and Medrich does specify Dutch process for the recipes in this book. I would think it would be fine since both baking powder and soda are used in the recipe and pound cake in general often doesn’t even include leavening.
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In the oven now - Orange Yogurt Scones, which I used to make all the time. My old notes say “best with orange yogurt, rather than other fruit yogurts.”
Freezer clear-out of some sugar combined with orange zest that’s been in there a couple of years. And fridge clear out of some plain yogurt to which I added a heaping T. of orange marmalade.
Photo and taste-test coming soon…
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very grateful for the ingredients and bonus tutorial.
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