Chocolate hazelnut torte

 
                          Chocolate Hazelnut Torte
 
 Recipe By     : Christiane Roehler 
 Serving Size  : 1    Preparation Time :0:00
 Categories    : Cakes
 
   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
 --------  ------------  --------------------------------
  200      grams         butter -- (2 sticks minus 1
      1/2  Tbl           )
  125      grams         flour -- (4 1/2 oz)
  125      grams         ground hazelnuts
  200      grams         sugar -- (7 oz)
    4                    eggs
    3      teaspoons     cacao
  100      grams         chocolate -- (4 oz) chopped*
    1      teaspoon      vanilla extract
    3      teaspoons     rum
    3      teaspoons     cinnamon
    1 1/2  teaspoons     baking powder
    1      can           sour cherries**
 
 * You will have chop the chocolate by hand.   Do not reduce the chocolate to a
floury consistency.  The size should be  that of small peas.  You want to have
small pieces of chocolate in your  cake after it baked. You can use chocolate
morsels instead.  But the  quality of the cake improves if you use a good
quality chocolate and not  the regular chocolate morsels. Match the quality of
your chocolate with  the quality of your cacao.
 ** I think cherries preserved in light	sirup are best, but you can use
whatever you can find.	Sour cherries  give a much more intense flavour than
sweet cherries.  You want about  300 g of cherries, but if you have a bit more
or less it does not really  matter.  The only thing is, the cherries are
largely responsible for the  nice moisture of the cake.
   Cream butter with the sugar.	Add eggs, one by one.  Add the vanilla.   Mix
 flour, hazelnuts, baking powder and add.  Add rum, cinamon and  cacao.  (Hints
 for adding the cacao: If you use a machine, just add it  here.  If you do the
 cake by hand, you might want to reserve a bit of  the sugar and mix it with
 the cacao to reduce the amount of lumps you  have.  Or mix the cacao with the
 other dry ingredients.)  Fold in the  chocolate. Carefully fold in the drained
 cherries.    Put dough in well buttered form.	You might consider dusting the
 form  with whatever you use for this.	I use a 26 cm (10 in) springform with 
 the insert that makes a hole in the middle of the cake.  This makes a	nicely
 sized if a bit flat cake. If you want to use the flat insert, 1  1/2 times the
 recipe should be about right.	  Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 50 to 65
 minutes.  Do not overbake,  one of the nice features of this cake is its
 moisture.  Test with a  wooden stick or a clean knife for doneness.  If it
 comes out clean after	you put it in the center of cake, the cake is done. But
 do not be  deceived by the moisture of the cherries or the melted chocolate,
 so try  two or three different spots, cleaning the knife or wooden stick after
  each use.  I do not know why, but the baking time of this cake can vary 
 considerably from oven to oven, and it also will depend on what form and 
 overall quantity you use.    Possible substitutions: Use walnuts instead of
 hazelnuts.  Decorate cake with confectioner's sugar, or a chocolate glaze,
 and/ or  whole nuts.
  
 
 
 
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