Recipe | Amaretti chocolate torte

An easy dessert torte you can make in advance: a crunchy amaretti biscuit base with a smooth chocolate cream topping

This recipe for amaretti chocolate torte came from my mum 🙂

You can get amaretti biscuits in many supermarkets, but I waited until Italian week in Lidl to get them as theirs don’t cost the earth (apologies if you live in a country that doesn’t have Lidl).

You should let the amaretti chocolate torte chill a couple of hours before you serve it, but I found that it had a firmer texture which was easier to slice after being allowed to chill overnight. This makes it an ideal dessert to make a day in advance of a dinner party.

Ingredients (12 large slices of amaretti biscuit torte):

40 g / 1.5 oz butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
175 g / 6 oz amaretti biscuits, crushed
280 g / 10 oz chocolate (the original recipe calls for plain, but I didn’t have any, so I used a mixture of milk and dark)
50 g / 2 oz caster sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp brandy and 1 tbsp water (if you don’t want to add alcohol, just add 2 tbsp water)
359 ml / 12 fl oz double cream

For decoration (optional):

10 – 12 amaretti biscuits, whole or crushed

Choosing a tin

The original recipe calls for a 9-inch (23 cm) loose-bottom flan tin. I don’t have a loose base flan tin, so I just used one of my round tins. I do have a 9-inch tin, but when I saw how much crushed biscuit I had, I decided it would spread too thinly if put in a 9-inch tin.

So I used my 8-inch (20cm) round springform tin. You can use one slightly bigger or smaller: you’ll just have thinner or thicker layers as a result.

I lined the base of my springform tin with clingfilm (you can also use tinfoil or greaseproof baking paper to make it easier to lift the amaretti chocolate torte off the base of the tin.

Method:

Crush the amaretti biscuits to a fine crumb either using a food processor or by putting them in a bag and rolling and bashing them with a rolling pin. The lovely thing about using amaretti biscuits for this is that they crush really easily!

In a heatproof bowl, melt 2 oz (50g) of the chocolate with the butter and golden syrup. You can either do this in a pan over a gentle heat or by giving the ingredients bursts of heat in the microwave. Tip the crushed biscuits into the melted ingredients and mix it through.

Spoon this mixture into your tin and push it down with the back of a spoon or a spatula to form an even, tightly-packed layer. Put the tin in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Now make the chocolate cream topping. Put the sugar, brandy (if you’re using it), water and honey into a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring the mixture until all the ingredients have melted together and it comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and set to one side.

Break the remaining 8 oz of chocolate into pieces in a heatproof bowl. Pour the hot brandy mixture over the chocolate and stir well until all the chocolate has melted. If this isn’t enough to melt it, you can put it in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Into another large bowl, pour the double cream. Use electric hand beaters to whisk the cream until it thickens. You can also use a stand mixer. Either way, it’ll take 4-5 minutes for the cream to thicken. I think I may have gone a bit far with thickening mine: 20 seconds fewer would have done!

Add the melted chocolate mixture to the whipped cream and fold the mixture together gently until the colour of the mixture is even. Don’t stir frenetically or you risk knocking all the air out of the cream.

Spoon the chocolate torte filling on top of your chilled amaretti biscuit base, spreading it out using a spatula or the back of a spoon until even and smooth. If you want, decorate using some more amaretti biscuits or crush a few biscuits and sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the torte.

Chill the amaretti chocolate torte for a minimum or 2 hours. I do think the final texture is better if you leave the torte to chill overnight, so I’d recommend making it the day before you need to serve it.

Remove your amaretti chocolate torte from the tin, transfer to a plate and slice!

If your amaretti chocolate torte doesn’t set properly, don’t worry. You can freeze it and then serve it as a sort of ice cream cake dessert.

Your amaretti chocolate torte will keep in the fridge, covered, for three days.

A plea from this baker/writer

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