Category: Pastry

It’s all becoming clear to me now…

The main reason most Linzer tortes are made with short crust these days — or so I’ve come to believe — has to do with a certain technical issue. Reader Gerhard has convinced me that originally Linzer tortes were indeed cake-like and not tart-like, with red currant (or black currant) jam on the top.

But here’s the sticky detail: jam is gooey. It soaks into cake when you bake it on top of a liquid (or semi-liquid) batter. So how did the originators of the modern Linzer torte achieve a separation of the two? The answer: by applying paper-thin wafers to the batter and then spreading jam over them. Back-Oblaten they’re called…”baking wafers.” The jam goes on the wafer, the wafer provides a barrier and probably absorbs enough moisture from the jam during baking that you don’t know it’s there afterward.

READ ON

Linzer Batter

So…let’s try that again. Here’s a pipe-able Linzer batter. This is enough for one 11″ torte or many cookies. If you plan on making piped cookies with this, omit the cinnamon and cloves. I also recommend adding an extra ounce of flour for cookies, so the batter doesn’t run quite so much. So here we go:

9 ounces whole blanched almonds, peeled hazelnuts or a combination
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoons cloves
11 ounces cake flour
1 teaspoons lemon zest
10 ounces butter
8 ounces granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 egg yolks, room temperature

READ ON

Just what is a “torte” anyway?

That’s an excellent question (thanks, Christine G.). The distinctions between cakes, layer cakes, tortes and gâteaux are rarely discussed. Most people simply assume they’re just different words people use to describe the same things, but that’s not really true. The distinctions between them can be fine but they’re real and worth noting. I’m not aware of any definitive resource on the subject, so all I can do is try to create my own. Pastry enthusiasts, chime in if you want to add or correct anything.

Cakes are single-layered sweetened and enriched “breads” for lack of a better word. Usually round and almost always flat, their primary ingredient is grain or grain flour (wheat, oat, barley or the like). Cakes can be sweetened with sugar, molasses or honey and enriched with eggs, solid fat or oil. They can be leavened naturally (yeast), mechanically (egg foam) or chemically (baking powder or soda).

READ ON

Baking Class Debrief

Reader Ruth wrote in to ask about the baking class I did over the holiday season at my daughter’s grade school. I meant to follow up on that but didn’t — so thanks, Ruth!

I may have mentioned that the organizer of these after school classes felt that baking was a subject better suited to older kids than to children my daughter’s age, and I had to agree. Fifth and sixth graders were much more responsible around heat sources and hot objects. I expected at least a couple of burns and/or cuts over the course of the six classes, but no one received a single injury. Which is not to say that they kids listened as well as I’d hoped they would. The science mostly passed right by them, and I frequently had to get, shall we say…insistent when it came to impressing the proper procedures on the group. I had only five, but lord, they were handful at times.

READ ON

Short Stuff

Reader Meredith asks: why do they call a short crust “short”? Great question. For that matter what’s “short” about shortcake or short bread or shortening? A short crust is “short” because it never gets tall. That sounds like a glib answer to the question, but it’s true. “Short” cakes and crusts are short because they don’t rise or get puffy. And it’s all due to the fat they contain.

Fat, by lubricating (or generally gunking up) the bonding sites on gluten molecules, prevents gluten networks from forming. This has the effect of making those crusts or cookies or biscuits tender. But since gluten networks are also what trap steam bubbles, fat (also called “shortening”) has the added effect of keeping those same items rather flat.

READ ON

Linz’s Least Favorite Son

Linz, Austria is a city with an interesting history, some of which we’ll probably get around to later in the week. However I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that these days Linz is mostly remembered as the childhood home of Hitler. Hey, the guy had to come from somewhere, right? Unfortunately for the PR team at the Linz chamber of commerce, Linz was the place.

Or well he didn’t come from there. Hitler was actually born in a small town called Braunau am Inn which is smack on the German-Austrian border. What, you didn’t know that Hitler was actually Austrian? Well now you do! Of course Hitler didn’t recognize much difference between the peoples of those nations. To him (and a lot of others) the German-speaking peoples of Europe were all one large volk, divided by artificial political borders. This what made the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, a relatively simple and painless affair.

READ ON

What is Linzer Torte?

You’ve seen one, I promise you. It’s a tart-like creation with a layer of raspberry preserves on the top, criss-crossed by strips of short crust. Of course it’s no ordinary short crust, but one that’s well infused with almonds, either ground almonds or almond flour. Sure, sometimes people use hazelnuts or walnuts, but almonds are […]

READ ON

Next Up: Linzer Torte

Linzer torte is a holiday treat in most places, however it’s popular in the States around Valentine’s day because it’s red and homey-looking. So I figure…why not? This might also be helpful for all the folks (and there were several of you) who asked for Linzer cookie recipes this past December. Alas, with a packed […]

READ ON