Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Ingredients

• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
• 3 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate
• 6 large, crisp double amaretti (or about 1/2 cup crushed amaretti)
• ¾ cup sliced or julienned blanched almonds
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• Confectioners’ sugar or cocoa, for dusting

10 to 14 servings

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with waxed paper and butter the paper. Dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess.
3. Melt the chocolates in the top of a double boiler over hot water or in a bowl in a microwave and set aside.
4. Place the amaretti and almonds in a food processor and pulse several times, until the mixture is evenly ground. Turn out onto a sheet of waxed paper and reserve.
5. Put the butter, sugar and eggs into the processor bowl and process until the mixture is satiny smooth and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes. Stop to scrape the bowl occasionally.
6. Add the amaretti and almond powder and the melted chocolate. Pulse until well combined. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven, on the center rack, for 25 to 30 minutes. The top will look dry and perhaps cracked; the center will be moist. Cool on a cake rack for 30 minutes. Run a blunt knife around the edge of the pan and turn out the torte. Peel off the wax paper, invert and cool on a rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar or cocoa.
7. Slice thinly and serve at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.

1 hour 15 minutes