Well, he couldn’t stay on vacation forever. My comeuppance was inevitable. Here is what a true Sacher torte aficionado (and home baker) has to say about what went on here last week. * The combination of those three components (flour, meringue and “mayonaise”) for Sacher Torte batter is the foundation of all good Viennese cake-baking. […]
READ ONMartha writes in from Amsterdam: Someone very nice brought a Demel chocolate Torte from Vienna for our Christmas dinner in Amsterdam. It came daintily packed in a signed wooden box. I had never tasted a “real” one before, and it was very nice and not really dry or dryish, although we did have whipped cream […]
READ ONI was hoping to get one other small project in before the end of the year, but between my work obligations and my Santa obligations, it just isn’t going to happen. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah — see you in 2010!
READ ONYes, yes Gerhard, I know: Sacher-style torte. No one outside the Sacher and/or Demel enterprises knows the actual recipe. However I believe this formula to be quite close. It’s certainly close to what I remember. In fact in some ways I think this is closer to what I ate in Vienna twenty five years ago […]
READ ONIn the event anyone out there is considering paying me big bucks for an endorsement — I’m all ears!
READ ONNo, Rob P., I’m not being paid by Java Juice. I just like it. When I endorse something for profit, I promise I’ll tell you.
READ ONOne of the chief complaints Viennese bakers have about American Sacher tortes (and believe me, they have a lot of them) is that they lack the bitter tang of their Viennese cousins. This they usually attribute to the chocolate, since we here in America tend to prefer mellower-tasting chocolates than folks on the continent, or […]
READ ONReader Peter T. wrote in overnight with the observation that most of the Sacher torte recipes he’s seen call for couverture chocolate, but the one I put up doesn’t. What’s the deal with that? he asks. It’s a good question, and he is quite correct, most of the better Sacher torte formulas do indeed call […]
READ ONReader Natasha writes: I just had to mention to you how amusing I find it that one can order an “original” Sacher torte directly from the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, from just about anywhere in the world! And the confection is quite refined and elegant as well. It comes in a nice hand made wooden […]
READ ONOne thing that I tend not to like about those big, professional pastry manuals is how formulaic they are. To make product 1, combine components A and B. To make product 2, combine components B and C. To make product 3, combine components A, B and C…and so on. It’s not that the people who […]
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