Chocolate Pave - GF

By stancec44

Pix shows served with candied hazelnuts, cranberry compote, cocoa nib florentine. (Candied Hazelnut recipe included.) It’s traditional to cut this cake into rectangular pieces to resemble paving stones, hence the name pavé. With that in mind, I have instructions for baking it in a rectangular pan, but of course you can bake it however you like. If you’d rather have a round torte, use a spring form pan because the torte can be a little tricky to remove from a traditional cake pan.

Ingredients

• Candied Hazelnuts:
• 12 ounces unsalted butter
• 6 ounces bourbon
• 16 ounces honey
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 9 ounces dark chocolate
• 4 ounces cocoa
• 6 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 8 ounces cream
• 8 ounces dark chocolate
• 2 ounces honey
• Hazelnuts
• 4 ounces water
• 8 ounces sugar
• pinch of kosher salt

Preparation

Step 1

In a medium pot, melt the butter together with the bourbon, honey, and vanilla bean. When the butter has melted, turn the heat up so the mixture simmers very gently. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Shut off the heat and steep for at least 30 minutes, or as long as you like, honestly.

Meanwhile, prepare a 9” x 13” metal baking pan by lining it with two sheets of tin foil, and greasing it lightly with pan spray or melted butter.

Preheat the oven to 300°

When you’re ready to proceed with the recipe, return the mixture to a simmer. Remove the vanilla bean (using a spatula to scrape out the buttery-vanilla goo from inside the pods) and whisk in the chocolate and cocoa powder. Reserve the vanilla beans for the ganache. Once you’ve whisked in the cocoa and chocolate, shut off the heat. Let this mixture cool slightly, about five minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and yolk together in a small bowl. Set a strainer over the chocolate mixture and pour the eggs in, whisking until they pass through. Discard any eggy bits that remain. Gently stir the eggs into the chocolate, just until homogeneous.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and rap it against the counter once or twice to release any air bubbles. Bake for about 20 minutes, or just until the cake becomes slightly firm to the touch. Remove and cool, in the pan, for about an hour.

While the cake is baking, bring the cream to a simmer with the vanilla bean. Shut off the heat and let it steep until the cake has cooled. When you’re ready to glaze the torte, bring the cream back to a simmer, remove the vanilla bean (again, scraping out the vanilla-y goodness from the inside of the pod) and whisk in the chocolate and honey.

Pour the warm ganache over the torte, use an offset spatula to make sure the ganache spreads to all of the corners. Refrigerate until the ganache firms.

To remove the torte from the pan, run a knife around the sides to loosen it and gently tug at the foil. When the torte moves freely away from the sides, use the foil to gently lift it out and onto a cutting board.

Tip the torte over so it stands up on its side, then peel off and discard the foil. Cut the torte into even portions using a clean, sharp knife. I like to dip the knife into a pitcher of very hot water and dry the blade briefly on a towel before slicing. The warm knife slices the torte into beautiful, clean portions.

Let the torte come to room temperature before serving. If you’d like, gently run the flame of a blowtorch over the ganache to bring out its shine.

Caramel & Nuts:

Before you start

Since the caramel will go from liquid to solid in a relatively short period of time, having your mise en place will help significantly. The equipment you’ll need depends on what you want to create with the caramel.

Please read through this and make a game plan before you start. I’m breaking recipe-writing rules by putting this info at the beginning because I want you to succeed.

So figure out how you want to use the caramel, read the instructions to get a good feel of the steps required, and then assemble any equipment you’ll need to actually get the job done. Only then should you make up the caramel.

Make the caramel in the smallest pot you have that will hold the water and sugar (this creates more depth for dipping and also helps the caramel retain its heat/fluidity).

Put the water, sugar, and a pinch of salt into the pot. Put it on medium heat and just let it go. You don’t even need to bother with stirring; the mixture will stir itself up when it comes to a simmer.

The only thing you need to do is keep an eye on it. This will go from caramel to burned crap pretty fast, so don’t multitask. Let the sugar water simmer away until it begins to take on a caramel color. Shake or swirl the pan occasionally to “mix” and to get a good gauge on the color. When it begins to turn an amber color, shut off the heat and transfer the pot to a cooling rack or pot holder.

The caramel is incredibly hot, so please use caution while dipping and don’t touch it with your fingers. It looks really shiny and delicious, so it’s easy to forget how hot it is when a trickle of caramel runs down the side of the pot. Don’t touch it!

Caramel Coated Nuts with a Spike a terrific garnish for chocolate torte. Just a tad tricky, but not really. You’ll need a parchment lined sheet pan, a heavy cutting board, and some wooden toothpicks to skewer the nuts for dipping. In this case, secure the nut to the toothpick from the side; push the toothpick into the nut just a fraction of an inch. Place the cutting board on the counter top, flush with the edge, and set a parchment lined sheet pan on the floor below.

Once you dip the nuts, rotate the toothpick so the “top” of the nut points toward the floor, then wedge the toothpick between the book/cutting board. The excess caramel will now drip down to the floor like a caramel icicle. Your floor will be cleverly protected by the sheet pan. Once the caramel hardens, remove the toothpick and invert the nut so the spike points toward the ceiling. Voila.