Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- You know, America is well known for its multi-layer cakes.

In fact, in the early 20th century, how you made a cake was really an indication of what kind of cook you were.

But around the world, there's lots of one-layer cakes-- there are pound cakes, there are tea cakes, and there are tortes.

And that's what we're going to cook today.

We're to start with a chocolate almond torte from Capri, move on to a Spanish almond cake.

It's really a dump-and-stir-- it's a great recipe from Spain, of course.

And, finally, we're gonna end up with a coconut tea cake from the Tandem Bakery in Portland, Maine.

So stay tuned as we explore one-layer cakes we love.

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- So, torta caprese obviously comes from Capri.

It's been around a long time.

It's a flourless chocolate almond cake.

Almonds have been in Italy for thousands of years.

The Romans used to throw them at weddings instead of rice.

- Ouch!

- Well, you could actually eat them.

And, of course, chocolate's a more recent thing.

It's about 17th century, but they finally got the almonds and the chocolate together.

So we love the cake very much.

There are lots of different ways of doing it.

And we're going to do a pretty simple version of it, right?

- Very simple version.

The one you're talking about is a very streamlined recipe already, but here at Milk Street we took it even further.

We came up with an incredibly quick batter that's made completely in the food processor, goes straight to the baking pan, which saves a lot of time and clean-up.

- So you don't have to beat the egg whites and fold them in and all the other stuff?

- No, no, no.

- Okay.

- We even did more streamlining, which we'll talk about as we go along.

So, one of the most important ingredients, obviously, is the almonds.

And we found that if we toast the almonds first, that increases the nuttiness, and it actually brings out some of those roasted notes in the chocolate.

We have two-and-a-third cup almond here, so we're going to toast these eight to ten minutes in a 350-degree oven.

The almonds are toasted from the oven, and we like to use the oven especially for this volume of almonds, because it gets it very evenly toasted and it's easy to do a large... - You mean as opposed to a skillet.

- As opposed to a skillet, yes.

- Okay.

- So we had two-and-a-third cups.

We're going to reserve a third-cup, which will go on top of the tart before it bakes.

The remaining two cups will go right into the food processor.

- And I get to eat any pieces that fall on the counter.

- Yeah.

So we went to process these until they're very, very fine.

Takes about 20 to 30 seconds.

(processor whirring) I think we're good-- that's pretty fine.

You can smell it.

- Mmm.

- The toastiness.

And while these are sitting for a couple of minutes, we're going to add the vanilla to the eggs.

And we have two teaspoons of vanilla.

We're just going to combine those liquids together, and then the next important ingredient is the chocolate.

- I mean, what's left of the chocolate.

- What's left... (laughs) - I ate a few pieces.

- We streamlined the recipe to the most essential ingredients, and we found that the fat from the almonds meant we can eliminate the butter from the recipe.

And we also decided not to melt the chocolate in a double boiler, but to add it to the processor and grind it down with the almonds.

- That's cool.

- Yeah, it is, right?

So we're going to pulse the chocolate in.

Takes about ten to 15 pulses.

(processor pulsing) - Ha!

This sounds like my old tractor trying to start on a cold morning.

(both imitating whirring) - And that looks great.

The chocolate is as finely ground as the almonds.

The chocolate we prefer for this torte is a 70% to 80% cocoa solids.

It's a bittersweet chocolate with a lot of depth of flavor.

You could use a sweeter chocolate if that's what you have, it's just not going to be as intense.

We're using dark brown sugar, as well, for this.

This is one packed cup.

The molasses notes goes really well with the chocolate and the whole thing just sort of...

They give each other a boost, in a way.

And one teaspoon of salt, because every good baked good needs a little bit of salt.

- I would point out that normally, we don't use more than 65% to 70% bittersweet cacao, but you have so much sugar, the cup of sugar, that'll balance that out.

- Exactly, yeah.

So, this needs about 30 seconds to get fully blended.

(processor whirring) Okay, we're going to scrape down the sides for a minute.

This is beautiful.

- This is very unusual, and I like it because it's easy, but there's no double boiler.

You don't have to melt the chocolate.

- When the chocolate is ground this fine, it melts beautifully into the torte, and it just gives it a little bit of a chewiness.

So we're going to turn this back on and add the eggs with the processor running.

Takes about 15 to 20 seconds.

(processor whirring) There it is.

Done.

- Man, I like this.

- So our pan has been lightly spritzed with oil, piece of parchment in the very bottom and a little bit of oil again, no flour needed.

Which brings me to mind that this is a flourless torte, so there's no gluten in it because there's no flour in it.

And because we took the butter out, it's also... - Dairy-free!

Well, except for eggs.

It depends on how you define eggs as dairy.

- Exactly.

There's no milk dairy.

- It's also work-free.

- (laughs) - Because it's so easy to do.

- Right, right.

Okay, well, work-free for one of the two of us.

- Yeah, for me, it is, yeah.

- So we're going to scrape it all out.

See the gorgeous dark color of it?

- Mmm.

- We pared the ingredients down to only the essential ones.

So the chocolate, the almonds, obviously, and eggs.

That's the... - This would be the great recipe for the first baking recipe anybody makes.

It just all goes in a food processor, four or five ingredients, done.

- Yes, you're right.

So we reserved that one-third cup of toasted almonds, and we're just going to sprinkle those over the top.

It makes for a beautiful look, and it gives a little crunchy texture after it bakes.

The torte bakes at 300 for 30 to 35 minutes.

And that's what gives it that little fudgy texture.

So, Chris, our torte has been sitting and is completely cool.

It baked in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, and we used a toothpick to test readiness.

And the toothpick, rather than coming out clean, should have a little bit of fudginess still clinging to it.

- Well, that's what I think.

- Well, okay.

- You know, any kind of chocolate cake, if it comes out clean, it's overbaked.

Because it continues cooking... - Yes.

- ...when it comes out of the oven.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna first loosen the sides with a knife.

- Which is hardly necessary, because the cake is properly baked.

- Right, and the pan was properly prepared.

Then we're going to use the rack as one of our inversion surfaces.

Okay, tap lightly.

There we go.

Peel off the parchment-- beautiful fudginess.

And then the serving platter gets put on the proper bottom, and re-inverted.

- Hmm.

- Voil.

- Nicely done.

- Isn't that beautiful?

It is beautiful, though, isn't it?

Now, this is a rich cake.

It's moist and fudgy.

You know, you don't need a big slice of it.

- (chuckles) - But... - Life is not about what you need, right, is it?

It's about what you want.

- There we go.

- Thank you.

- And we have some unsweetened whipped cream, if you'd like to add.

You know, when you're using bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened whipped cream is fantastic, because then that doesn't sweeten the chocolate flavor of the cake.

(quietly): I just love to smell it.

- Mmm.

- Hmm.

- You know, for four or five ingredients, it's amazing.

- Yep.

- But it's not heavy.

It's rich, but it's not heavy-heavy, you know?

- Such an elegant thing for so little effort.

- This is why you go into the culinary arts, for a moment like this, right?

- Yep.

- So somebody else can make you dessert.

(both laughing) You can have a great slice of chocolate almond flourless cake.

Mmm.

So torta caprese is a marriage of chocolate and almonds.

Chocolate started around the 17th century, but later on, they got together with the almonds and made a flourless chocolate cake.

Our version is half a dozen ingredients, all in the food processor, very simple to do in a 300- degree oven for half an hour.

And that's it-- simple, delicious.

Thank you.

I'm here with Briana Holt from the Tandem Bakery in Portland, Maine.

- Mm-hmm.

- Now, how do I describe you?

A new age, a new wave baker?

- (laughs) - So, today we're going to do a coconut spelt cake, right?

- Yep, yeah, it's kind of like a pound cake, or a tea cake, some might call it.

And it's made with a really tasty spelt flour that's grown in Maine.

So, first we're going to brown the butter.

And we want to get it really brown, really toasty-- almost, dare I say it, burned.

All the milk solids in there are going to cook and get really, really dark.

And then when it cools, it's this creamy, brown, nutty butter.

But I do want to give it a stir and a swirl every once in a while.

(butter sizzling grows softer) Did you hear that?

It starts to get a little quieter.

So it's....

I would say it's about halfway there.

So you want it to be dark brown-- darker than amber-- and you want to smell it.

So you want it to have a really nutty smell-- a toasty, nutty smell.

And I'm just going to pour it in here and let it cool.

You certainly don't want to use it right now while it's hot and melted.

So we have this really tasty brown butter.

What we're going to do first, actually, is whisk together the dry ingredients here for the cake.

So we got our all-purpose flour.

Um, and our spelt flour.

Some toasted coconut.

- That's unsweetened toasted... - Unsweetened, yeah, mm-hmm.

And some salt.

And some baking powder.

And then we'll whisk all this together.

You want to have this ready to go, because we're going to add it to our bowl after the butter and the sugar are creamed.

- So since you're a professional baker, is it weird for you to make one recipe instead of 20 at the time?

- It is sometimes weird, but I go home from work and I bake for myself relatively often.

Although I still always make much too much at home for myself.

And then take this tasty brown butter, and we're just going to get it right in the bowl here.

And it's pretty soft.

It's always going to be a little softer than regular butter, but you do want to make sure that you're using it at room temperature rather than hot.

And then the sugar.

So we're going to cream these things.

And we're going to cream this... You don't want to take it too far.

You don't want it to be really light, fluffy.

You don't want to aerate it too much.

But you do want it... - Because then it will collapse when it bakes?

- Yep.

Then it will collapse when it bakes.

But you do want it to come together and you do want it to get a little bit lighter.

And while it's running, we're going to pour our eggs in.

- So can I just ask a question?

- Yeah.

- So you're creaming it on a fairly low speed.

- Yep, yeah.

- And a lot of creaming takes three or four minutes.

So this is gonna be a little quicker and a lower-speed creaming?

- Yep.

Yeah, we don't want to incorporate too much air, because this is kind of a dense pound cake.

And we'll get our eggs in.

And you kind of want to let one get in there a little bit before you join the party with the next one.

Or two, as the case may be.

So now that our mixture is kind of shiny, smooth-- almost ribbony-looking, a little bit-- we're going to stop it here.

(mixer stops) And we're going to put in some of the dry stuff.

So we've got our dry mixture here.

We're just going to dump in a little bit here like this.

Alternating helps to keep it from getting overmixed or undermixed.

And for our wet, we have buttermilk, some vanilla.

And the buttermilk is really tangy and acidic.

That's going to help tenderize the cake, it's going to flavor it.

So we've got our dry stuff in there.

Turn back on.

(mixer whirring) It doesn't need to all get mixed in.

And then we're just going to pour a little bit of that in.

Not all of it, maybe about half to a third.

Then we're going to stop it.

(mixer stops) And it's pretty lumpy, but that's okay.

We don't mind that.

So this is addition two of three.

I like to do three.

- Three dry, two wet.

(mixer whirring) - Or three and three.

- Three and three.

- Yep, so we'll put a little more in there like that.

And then stop it.

(mixer stops) - So you're not beating it more than, like, five or ten seconds after each addition.

- Mm-hmm.

Basically a really light hand.

Yeah, you don't want to overmix it.

What this does is make a really tender cake with a nice crumb.

(mixer whirring) Pour this right in, that's the last of our buttermilk.

- So here's one of my great baking questions.

- Yeah.

- Which is, what happens to those lumps in the batter, you put it in the pan, you bake it, and you take it out, there are no lumps?

- If there's butter in there, it's evaporating.

If there's sugar in there, it's kind of melting into the crumb of the cake.

What we're going to do is finish this by hand.

So we take our spatula, basically, just fold it over itself a few times.

All right, and then we're going to put it in our pan.

So just get all that in there.

Like that.

- So it is lumpy.

- Yep.

- I mean, it really is lumpy.

- Yeah, well, there's also toasted coconut in here.

- Oh, that's true.

- Yep, so you're seeing that in there, too.

It's not just the little dough lumps.

And that's it, and now we're going to put it in the oven-- 350 for about 80 minutes.

And you know it's done, you want to poke it, and it should come out with a few wet crumbs still attached.

Not totally clean.

And you can kind of give it a little poke with your fingers.

It should have a little bit of give but a little bit of spring.

- This is a professional baker who's...

So you're just going like this?

This is touchy-feely?

Is this how you know?

- Yep, yep, you want to know what it's feeling, what it's thinking.

So here's our finished cake, and now we're gonna soak it.

You want to let it cool just a little bit.

If it's really hot and you soak it with this soak, it's all just gonna... (makes swooshing sound) Go right through.

- (imitates swooshing sound) - Yep.

- Okay.

- So this is our soak.

It's coconut milk and water and sugar, and you just want a microwave it for a minute or so until the sugar is dissolved.

So what this is going to do is, it's gonna keep the cake moist.

So we're just going to poke it all over.

Just kind of get all these little holes in here, which is kind of fun.

- Poke and soak.

- Poke and soak is literally what we say at the bakery.

All right, so we poked it all over, and now we're just going to brush it all over with this soak.

It's going to get a little sweeter, a little wetter, a little more coconutty.

And then we'll let it cool completely before we pop it out of the pan and glaze it.

- Okay.

- So we're going to start with confectioner's sugar and some coconut milk.

A lot of coconut milk everywhere, all over the place, with this cake.

A little bit of salt.

We're going to whisk this together.

- So this is a standard confectioner's sugar glaze.

- Yeah, this is... - Which is a lot of sugar and a little liquid-- orange juice, milk, coconut milk, whatever.

- Yeah, yep.

Lemon juice, a lot of times.

Just like a classic lemon pound cake will have that nice... like in a New York City deli, and it's wrapped in plastic.

It's got that nice, thick, kind of cracky glaze on it.

I love that.

It's a little thick, but it's still going to drip down the sides of the cake a little bit.

So we'll take it, get it on there.

I love a glazed pound cake.

I find it to be classy, kind of like a 1950s vibe.

I love how it looks.

And you can just let it drip all over the top, down the sides.

All right, so now we have, just to gild the lily a little more, some toasted coconut.

So we're just going to sprinkle this all over the top of the cake here.

And you could go crazy, or you can hold back, whatever your heart tells you.

But I like to have a little crunch and a little extra coconut.

- Looks great.

- You want to let it set, I don't know, maybe, like, ten minutes?

- I can, I can handle ten minutes.

- You can handle ten minutes?

Okay, good.

Got some dramatic, sassy drips.

I'm going to cut you a big slice.

- Good.

- The center cut.

- Yeah, center cut.

Well, it's, like, you know, it's like salmon.

- That's exactly right, the fattiest part.

I have a plate and a fork here, unless you're the kind of cake person that wants to eat with your hands.

- I would probably do it with my hands, but I'll use the... - (laughs) - Yeah, generous.

- Generous slices, that's the goal.

- Okay, well... Mmm.

- Mmm!

It is really good.

- You like your own baking?

That's good.

- I love it!

- I've noticed that, you know, Claire Ptak in London-- she did the royal wedding cake-- you, a lot of other people, are mixing savory and sweet a lot.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so you get a lot more flavor.

And it's much more interesting than everything just all sweet.

- Yeah.

- I think it really makes it much better.

And I think the spelt does that.

- Yeah, I like a good balance.

- So, coconut spelt cake-- it has really darkly browned butter, which added a lot of flavor to it, has a soak on top, and then a glaze.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's a twofer.

- Yep, yep.

- But it's basically a pound cake, so it's really not hard to make.

- No.

- But it's the best pound cake you'll ever eat.

- I like to think so.

- I'm not kidding.

- (laughs) - Briana, thank you.

- You're welcome.

Thank you.

- Now, I like to say this recipe is all about marketing.

It started out as a Galician sort of almond cake from Spain, been around quite a long time.

And then, in 1924, a local bakery decided, "We'll put the shape of a cross using powdered sugar on the top."

And so it became sort of a religious cake, right?

And it's so a little bit of marketing turned it into a very popular almond cake.

Now, it should be popular because it tastes so good.

And it's actually a very simple cake to make.

- Yeah, that's really what we love the most about this cake.

It's just got a wonderful texture and a wonderful flavor.

And on top of that, you know, it ended up being a really, really simple cake to make.

- And it's really the chewy texture that's really key for this cake.

- Yeah, it reminds me of, like, a giant almond macaroon, which I love.

- Ooh.

Nothing wrong with that.

- No, exactly.

So we're going to start out by adding three whole eggs, and then the extra three whites.

I'm going to break these up a little bit.

And then to this, we're going to add a cup plus two tablespoons of sugar.

- I noticed there's no electric mixer on the counter.

- No, got rid of all that.

And then a half-teaspoon kosher salt.

This is a quarter-teaspoon almond extract to heighten the almond flavor, and then also a quarter-teaspoon of vanilla.

And I know it doesn't seem like very much, but this cake is so simple... - You're being a little cheap with the extracts here, don't you think?

Can we go up to half a teaspoon?

- But there's actually... you know, there's no flour in this cake, and there are so few ingredients-- no butter-- so you only need a little bit of extract.

It really does come through.

- You know what my rule is, though, for recipes with vanilla extract-- double it.

- (laughs) - I always just double it.

- It's expensive these days.

- Okay, well, I'm just...

I'm going crazy.

I'm spending my last little bit of money on vanilla extract.

- There you go-- it's worth it, right?

So now I'm just going to whisk this by hand fairly vigorously for about 30 to 45 seconds.

And I just want to really break up those eggs so we don't have any egg pieces in the final batter.

It's starting to get frothy.

And the eggs are really well broken down.

And now I'm going to add, this is two-and-a-half cups of blanched almond flour.

And I'm going to whisk this, getting any lumps that I see.

Okay.

- This is ridiculous.

- It is ridiculous.

- I mean, it's so easy.

- It's easier than pancakes.

And now I'm going to transfer this to our pan that we have prepared.

This is a nine-inch cake pan, and we've greased it and we've lined it with parchment paper and then greased it again.

This is really important, because this cake, because it has so much sugar in it, it will stick.

Also, because, as you can see, this is a fairly loose batter.

You don't want to substitute a springform pan.

- It'll leak?

- Yeah, it might leak, so... We're just going to sprinkle the top.

This is three tablespoons of turbinado sugar, which adds a nice crunch.

And then we're going to add one-third cup chopped sliced almonds.

And together, these are going to bake up in the oven.

It's going to develop this really wonderful, like, dark brown chewy crust.

And that's it.

- I feel...

I feel... - Do you feel cheated?

- Yeah, I feel cheated.

I feel, like, unsatisfied.

Usually you spend time, you show me how to do this and that.

You just dumped, stirred.

- Yeah, that's it.

- Yeah.

- So this is going to go bake in a 350-degree oven with the rack set in the middle position.

It does take a while, between 45 and 55 minutes, to bake all the way through.

And then it's done.

- Well, it took us three minutes to get it in the pan; we can wait for the baking.

- Yeah.

- It's not so bad.

- Okay, so, you ready?

I'm ready.

This baked for the full 55 minutes.

Then I let it cool for ten minutes.

I just ran a knife around the edges and I popped it out of the pan, peeled off that parchment, and I re-inverted it.

And then it's been cooling for about an hour and a half.

So, ready to eat.

I'll give you a nice big piece this time.

- You know, in life, I'm always suspicious when something looks too good to be true.

Because this was a three-minute, you know, process.

- Yeah, so you're suspicious.

- I'm a little suspicious.

- Yeah, yeah.

There you go.

And then I'm going to put a little bit of crme frache on this because it is a sweet cake, and this is a really nice complement.

I don't want to cover up those pretty almonds.

- I just want... this is what I get?

- Oh, you want more?

- Well, I mean, yeah.

I mean... - (laughs) - Be generous of spirit.

- It's a rich cake.

- Do you want more?

- Sure.

- Sure you do!

- We're just going nuts.

- Well, okay.

- So, you can... just by looking at the crumb of the cake, you can see how moist it is.

- Mmm.

- Mmm.

- You're right.

It's a cookie in the form of a cake.

- Mm-hmm.

And you know, you can really taste the almonds.

You really don't need much more than those little bit of extract to flavor this cake.

- What you really like about this, besides the fact it's moist, is that the top is crunchy.

- It is, yeah.

- So you get this crunchy top on top of the nice, moist cake.

- Yeah, the sugar and the nuts, and they sort of combine, the heat of the oven, and it just really forms that beautiful crust.

It adds a nice crunch.

- This is a rare case in baking where you get out a lot more than you put in.

I mean, sometimes you put in a lot of work, and you don't get much out; I've done that.

This is zero work in and an A product out.

I mean, this has to go into the Hall of Fame... - I agree.

- For, you know, return on investment desserts, in financial terms.

So tarta de Santiago, or Spanish almond cake, is ridiculously easy to make and ridiculously delicious.

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