Sachertorte (Duramecho Version)
Sachertorte from Hotel Sacher, Vienna.
Category Dessert recipes
Servings 8
Time prep: 30 min, baking: 80 min
Difficulty

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes 

| Austrian Cuisine | Dessert

Sachertorte (Ger. ˈzɑxər ˈtɔrtə; Eng.ˈsɑkər ˈtɔrt; Ger. zah-khuhr tawr-tuh; sah-ker tawrt); is a chocolate cake, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The word is sometimes split into Sacher torte.

The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate dough with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing with shreds of chocolate on the top and sides. This is traditionally eaten with whipped cream, as most Viennese consider the Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten without.

The trademark for the "Original Sachertorte" was registered by the Hotel Sacher, which was built in 1876 by the son of Franz Sacher. That original recipe is a well-kept secret.

Ingredients

Cake

Filling

Glaze

Equipment and supplies

Oven. 2 mixing bowls. Whisk. Knife. Scales. Microwave oven with microwaveable bowl or a hob and saucepan. Round cake tin (preferably springform with removable bottom) about 20 cm diameter and 10 cm high. A cup (or similar as temporary egg yolk container). Greaseproof paper.

Procedure

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Egg White Foam

  1. Split eggs, putting the whites in a mixing bowl.
  2. Whisk until fairly stiff and foamy.
  3. Add three quarters of the sugar.
  4. Whisk until fully stiff and foamy, incorporating as much air as possible.

Butter Foam

  1. Butter should be room temperature and soft. Alternatively, carefully soften butter in microwave (do not melt).
  2. Put the remaining sugar in a mixing bowl.
  3. Add the butter.
  4. Add vanilla.
  5. Put the first load of chocolate in the microwave bowl and melt the chocolate in the microwave, avoiding cooking or burning it.
  6. Meanwhile, return to the butter/sugar mix and whisk until it goes pale & creamy looking.
  7. Add the egg yolks.
  8. Add the molten chocolate.
  9. Gently (not whisking) mix the ingredients in the bowl.
  1. Add the whites foam to the butter/yolk/sugar mixture.
  2. Add the flour to the mix via a sieve, carefully avoiding lumps of flour.
  3. Mix very gently, folding the ingredients together. Ensure the heavy chocolate does not all end up at the bottom of the bowl.
  4. Line the cake tin with greaseproof paper.
  5. Fill cake tin with the mix.
  6. Bake at 170°C for about 70 min.
  7. Allow to cool in the tin upside down until at room temperature (about 30 min).

Filling

  1. Microwave the jam until it melts.
  2. Cut the cake body in half horizontally and place the halves with inner (cut) faces uppermost.
  3. Pour the molten jam onto both halves of the cake.
  4. Allow it to soak in.
  5. Reassemble the cake, with cut surfaces together.
  6. Allow the surface to cool again.

Glaze

  1. Microwave the golden syrup (150 g of syrup is about 100 ml) and remaining chocolate together until the syrup just starts to bubble.
  2. Stir until they are smoothly mixed.
  3. Allow to cool to about 25°C.
  4. This should now be spreadable and able to support a thickness of about 2 mm on a vertical surface (test on the wall of the bowl) yet return to shiny soon after being spread. If it is too hard or soft, add more golden syrup or chocolate and go back to the microwaving stage. (The exact amount of syrup needed depends on the sugar content of the chocolate. You want about equal weights of syrup and chocolate for normal UK plain eating chocolate (which is 50% cocoa solids) but more syrup if using darker (e.g. 70%) chocolate.)
  5. Spread cake body with the glaze.
  6. Leave it to set.

Notes, tips, and variations

  • Do not accidentally get any fat (from the egg yolks, butter or chocolate) in the egg white mix or it will go flat.
  • The little bubbles in the egg white foam are what inflate the cake.
  • Do not allow flour lumps in the mix because lumps of white flour show up badly in this brown cake.
  • To get the traditional perfectly cylindrical shape, trim the cake body into a circle with vertical edges & cut the top off flat before glazing.
  • Adding alcohol to the cake is not a good idea. It is already very moist and more liquid will make it soggy.
  • Don't use white chocolate in the cake body because it is fairly unnoticeable by flavour and colour, leaving only the moistening effect.
  • Don't use self-raising flour. It creates large bubbles in the cake.
  • If carried out in the order above, no tool should need to be washed up more than once.
  • There are several other recipes for Sachertorte, some use even more eggs in the cake and egg and cream in the glaze.

References

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