CAKE - Montebello Torte (Flourless Pistachio Cake with Strawberries)

By Aemelia

Ingredients

• The Torte:
• 98 gm yolks ( from 6 medium eggs, Grade C)
• 30 gm sugar
• 230 gm powdered pistachios,
• 1 drop apple green food colouring
• 190 gm egg whites ( from 6 medium eggs, Grade C)
• 30 gm sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• Other components:
• Pistachio Cream
• Citrus syrup
• Citrus glaze
• 300 gm or more strawberry halves (keep chilled all the time)
• Chopped pistachios (the specially selected green ones)
• Powdered pistachios:
• 250 gm pistachios
• 100 gm sugar
• Pistachio cream:
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 gm whipping cream
• 70 gm powdered pistachios
• 10 gm cornstarch
• 1 drop green food colouring
• 200 gm whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp gelatin
• 1 Tbsp water
• Citrus syrup and glaze:
• 100 gm water
• 50 gm sugar
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 mint leaves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp gelatin
• 1 Tbsp water

Details

Adapted from wendyinkk.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Torte:
1. Preheat oven at 150(fan)/170C. Prepare a clean tube pan or a regular 9 inch round pan (grease base, and leave the sides clean)
2. Beat yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix with food colouring.
3. Beat egg white until frothy, put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar and beat until stiff (stiff hooked peaks).
4. Pour the yolk mixture into the whites and half the nuts. Fold until half incorporated and pour in the balance of nuts and fold until well incorporated.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 -40 minutes. (My tube pan was done in 30 mins)
6. Invert to cool for 15 minutes and then turn it upright again. Release the sides and let the torte coll down completely. It will shrink by half. Remove from mould and chill (covered until it’s time to fill with cream)
7. When every component is prepared, remove cake from fridge and place onto serving platter.
8. Brush citrus syrup all over the torte.
9. Put pistachio cream into a piping bag fitted with a 3mm plain nozzle. Frost cake by squirting the cream all over the torte.
10. Arrange strawberry halves onto the cream.
11. Sprinkle chopped pistachios over and chill the whole cake for about 30 minutes(or freeze 10 minutes).
12. Glaze the cake especially the strawberries with the citrus glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the nuts and everything.
13. Top with some icing sugar if preferred, but it melts anyway

Powdered pistachios:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Put all the pistachios in at once. Let it sit for 1 minute. Drain well. And remove the skins of the pistachio. Discard bad nuts. Place nuts in fridge, spread out and uncovered overnight to dry.
2. Spread nuts onto baking pan and bake them at 150(fan)/170C until they start to smell good, but still retaining their colour. (Mine took 8 minutes without preheating) Remove from oven and let it cool to slightly warm.
3. Select the greenest nuts(chopped for topping) and make sure you have balance of 200gm pistachios for powdering.
4. Divide the 200gm nuts and sugar into 3 and mill them until fine. Break clumps if they seem to clump together.

Pistachio cream:
1. Mill powdered pistachio with cornstarch to get a finer texture.
2. Prepare pistachio pastry cream. Mix yolks with cream, and on low heat until it turns slightly warm, put in powdered pistachios and cook until it begins to thickens.(if using heavy based pot, stop when it starts to thicken. If regular stainless steel pots, cook until it thickens. When you stir, the whisk leaves trails that you can see the base of the pot). Put into a bowl, let it cool down, cover with cling wrap and chill until time of use. (These steps can be done right after the torte goes into the oven for baking)
3. 30 minutes before frosting time, put ceramic/glass mixing bowl into freezer. (If using stainless steel, skip this and place bowl in a ice water bath only when you want to start frosting.)
4. When it’s almost time to frost, place water in a small heat proof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and let it sit for 1 minute. Melt it either over hot water bath or in the microwave. See method here. Let the mixture cool down, it won’t take long.
5. Remove mixing bowl from freezer and put in whipping cream. Beat until streaks start to show and put in sugar and beat until soft peaks. Put in gelatin mixture and beat until stiff.
6. Remove cold pistachio pastry cream from fridge.
7. Put a few Tbsp of the whipped cream into the pastry cream, fold to lighten it. Repeat with a few more Tbsp of whipped cream.
8. Pour the pastry cream into the whipped cream and fold until incorporated.
9. Use immediately or keep chilled before frosting. Best made less than 1 hour ahead of frosting.

Citrus syrup and glaze:
1. Put gelatin and 1 Tbsp water into a heatproof bowl. Place it on top of the weighing scale.
2. Bring water, sugar and lemon zest to a boil. Let it simmer for 1 minute then remove from heat. Stir in mint leaves, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Let it sit for 30 seconds.
3. Place strainer over (1) and and pour in 50gm of the syrup into the gelatin mixture. Stir until gelatin melts. This is the glaze.
4. Strain balance of syrup into another bowl and let it cool down. This is the syrup