Drunken Chocolate Torte

Yip, I have a wonderful family and a fabulous bunch of friends - they know how much I love cooking and eating, so no surprises I scored a couple of recipe books for Christmas - 'Everyday Day' by Peter Gordon and 'Riverstone Kitchen - Simple' by Bevan Smith -   lucky, lucky me!! I also gave myself two books for Christmas, 'Real Food' by Nigel Slater and 'Jerusalem' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi - it has been so much fun over the holidays, just having the time to pour over my books choosing recipes to try at a later date. I started out putting markers in the pages I loved the most but gave up in the  end - there was far too many.
Last week, we were off to a Saturday family lunch - a good opportunity to try something new - also a chance for a bit of a try out for a dessert to serve at my pending birthday party .
This recipe came Bevan Smith's book. Having never made a Chocolate Torte before - it looked easy and it included a large amount of rum (which reminded me a little of my twenties - it was a drink I enjoyed at that time - with a lemonade mixer of all things, yikes!) The outcome of my labours turned out quite well and as stated in the recipe I served it with the rum syrup and  rum and raisin icecream.
Just a few things I learned - it was quite a challenge to transfer the torte from the tin base to a cooling rack and then to a serving plate large enough. The recipe says to wait until the torte is totally cooled before attempting to move it - next time I will be just a little more patient.... and I was also disappointed when the top of my torte cracked a bit, after a discussion with another foodie, I decided it would be best to cook the next one in my fan oven at 160 (as stated in the recipe, not at 150), lesson learned... Plus, I wondered if you could just use ground almonds rather than blitzing whole ones, might try that one as I had to hold onto the food processor to stop it bouncing off the bench!
Being a bit of a greedy for chocolate I served myself a large piece. Boy! it was a bit of a challenge to finish - this dessert is quite rich, might be best to start with a small portion.....
The feedback from the table was very complimentary and it has now been added to the birthday party menu.

Drunken chocolate torte with vanilla rum syrup

330g whole almonds, blanched

330g dark chocolate(I used Whittaker's Ghana Dark)

330g castor sugar

1 ½ cups of dark rum

330g unsalted butter

9 free-range eggs, separated

Vanilla rum syrup, to serve

Rum and raisin ice-cream

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a round 28cm cake tin with a removable base with baking paper. Place almonds and chocolate in a food processor and blend until completely ground.

Add sugar and continue to process for a further minute before adding the rum while the machine is still running. Continue to process until mixture forms a smooth paste. Leaving the machine on, add butter processing to combine, before adding egg yolks one at a time. Remove chocolate mixture from the food processor and place in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg whites to a firm peak and fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 ¼ hours until just set. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before serving with a drizzle of vanilla rum syrup and some rum and raisin ice-cream.

Vanilla and rum syrup

1 cup of castor sugar

¾ cup water

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp dark rum

 Place sugar and vanilla paste in a small saucepan and bring to boil over a medium to high heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Stir in rum and store in an airtight container fro up to one month. 

It serves about 12 people.