Daring Bakers August Challenge: Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel.  It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. I made this recipe with a good friend of mine who is an extremely experienced baker.  While I liked its rich chocolate flavor, this recipe was almost too labor intensive for the two of us to complete.  Needless to say, it's a great recipe to try once, but perhaps only once.

Dobos Torte:

Serves 12

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake Layers:

6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

1 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream:

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 oz baker's chocolate, finely chopped

2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Caramel Topping:

1 cup sugar

12 tablespoons water

8 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon neutral oil (sunflower, grapeseed, rice bran, etc)

Finishing Touches:

Hazelnuts, some whole, some chopped.

Directions for the Sponge Layers:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit on your baking sheet.  Trace the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan to create a template for pouring a layer of sponge cake.  Flip parchment paper over, so that food does not touch the ink of the tracing.

Beat egg yolks and 2/3 cup confectioner's sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer for about 3 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and pale yellow.  In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  At this time, beat in remaining confectioner's sugar until stiff peaks form.  Stir 1/4 of this mixture into the egg yolk mixture.  After completely mixed, fold in remaining egg whites.  Combine flour and salt and sift into bowl in two parts, folding flour into batter.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and use 3/4 cup of batter to fill in each template.  Place in oven for 5 minutes, or until cake is no longer sticky.  The lower baking sheet will need to bake longer than the upper sheet.  If you take out the sheets too early, the cake layers will stick to the parchment paper.  Once you remove a cookie sheet from the oven, invert cake onto a flat surface and peel off the parchment paper.  Place upside-down back onto the parchment paper to cool.  Quickly rinse cookie sheet in cold water to cool off before putting on another traced sheet of parchment paper and more batter.  Repeat for all 6 layers.

Instructions for Chocolate Buttercream:

Whisk eggs with sugar, until thickened.  Cook egg mixture in a double broiler for 2-3 minutes.  Whisk in chocolate and continue stirring for another 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and scrape into another bowl to cool to room temperature.  When cool, beat in butter with a spatula.

Instructions for Caramel Topping:

Choose the best looking cake layer for the top, and cut into 12 slices.  Place onto another cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Stir sugar, water, and lemon in a sauce pan, and evaporate out the water, forming a sticky caramel sauce.  Oil a spoon to help spread hot caramel sauce over cake layer pieces and let harden.  Once completely cooled, use an oiled knife to break apart the caramel topping at the previously cut lines.  This was the hardest step for us to accomplish; the caramel just did not want to cut!

To Assemble the Dobos Torte:

On your serving platter, place a small dab of chocolate buttercream to prevent cake from sliding.  Place a layer of cake down, and cover with frosting.  Continue laying down remaining layers of cake and frosting.  Completely cover the top and sides of the cake with the chocolate buttercream, and top with the caramel topping wedges, propped up by extra frosting and hazelnuts.  Sprinkle on chopped hazelnuts for a richer flavor.

Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish, and Artichokes

This delicious recipe is what I made for dinner a couple of weekends ago as part of the Daring Kitchen challenge dishes. The Daring Kitchen is a society of bakers and cooks that agree to make a special challenge dish determined monthly and post about their struggles and successes on their blogs. I heard about the Daring Kitchen when I was reading different cookbook reviews, and thought it sounded like a lot of fun.

The August Daring Cooks Challenge is Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish, and artichokes from José Andrés’s TV show called Made in Spain.

Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish, and Artichokes

serves 4

Ingredients:

4 artichoke bottoms (I got mine from a can)
12 mushrooms (button or Portobello)
1 bay leaf
1 glass of white wine

Sofregit (see recipe below)
2 cuttlefish
2 cups of rice (short grain preferred)
4 ½ cups water
Saffron Threads OR 1/4 teaspoon tumeric

Sofregit - (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions; it would also work well as a spaghetti sauce)

Ingredients:

5 large tomatoes, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 bay leaf
Salt
Cumin
Dried Oregano

Directions:

Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft. Taste and salt if necessary.

Make the Sofregit before you start preparing the cuttlefish.

It was really a challenge for me to figure out how to cut up and prepare the two cuttlefish I purchased from my nearest Japanese supermarket, but luckily my sister’s Cooking Mama Nintendo DS videogaming expertise helped me out. After pouring over dozens of online squid cleaning tutorials, my sister simply tells me to:

1. pull off the head,
2. pull out the backbone,
3. cut off the top fin

4. peel off the skin

5. cut flesh/prepare as deisred

because that's how we do it in Cooking Mama!

Now I have a lot more respect for Cooking Mama! It’s more than just a fun game for kids; it can teach you how to cook!

Back to the recipe:

Cut the cuttlefish in little strips. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan. Cut artichokes in eights. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths. Add a bay leaf, artichokes, and mushrooms to the pan. Sauté until artichokes turn golden. Add white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.

Add water/fish stock and bring it to boil. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”) Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Allioli - (Spicy Garlic Sauce – A really great non-butter garlic bread spread!)

I actually made this sauce before I started cooking the cuttlefish. It takes a while longer than one might think if you do it by hand with a mortar and pestle; however, some people have made this using a food processor and that seems to work, too!

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, peeled
Salt
Fresh lemon juice
1 cup of olive oil

Directions:
Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.) Add the lemon juice to the garlic.

Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

To plate this dish, give a generous helping of rice with extra sofregit and Allioli sauce on the side!