TWD: chocolate amaretti torte

Charlie, my cat, (below) complained all week that Willa, the pup, gets way too much attention on this blog. He demanded that he be featured this week since he loves chocolate torte. Here he is waiting oh so patiently for his slice of cake. How do you say "no" to that face?

Holly of Phe/MOM/enon selected the 15 minute magic chocolate amaretti torte for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. (Visit Holly's site for the full recipe.) As the torte's name states it really only takes 15 minutes. Plus you get to make the whole thing in the food processor. Super easy. It also makes it less likely for me to make a complete mess of the kitchen. (See last week's TWD for a picture of the kind of mess I usually make.)

So I have a confession to make...I am not a huge fan of chocolate. I know that it's sacrilegious to be a woman and not LOVE chocolate. When I was younger I wouldn't touch it. I have since grown up and have found that I have acquired a taste for it. Kind of like when you are a kid and smell blue cheese and you can't figure out why your parents would seriously eat sweaty gym socks, but at age 20-something you find yourself eating sweaty gym socks and loving it. Chocolate and I are now friends and I do enjoy it now and then. But the friendship has not quite developed into a love of dark chocolate or really chocolatey desserts. This torte was looking like it would be the latter. I had a small piece and loaded it with whipped cream and to my surprise (and delight) I loved it. Was it chocolatey? Hell yes, but the whipped cream balanced it out. Who knows, my friendship with chocolate may someday turn into love. I might even try dark chocolate in ten years.

The grocery store only had Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate so above is my free advertising. Trader Joe's used to sell neat chunks of chocolate but for some reason they quit and now only have wrapped bars like everywhere else. And alas no bittersweet, so off to Safeway.

The glaze for the torte came together easily. It was super smooth and did a wonderful job of hiding all of the torte's little imperfections. When I took the torte out of the oven it was slightly cracked on top (as the recipe said it would be). It also had a bubble on one side. Fortunately the bubble disappeared and the glaze hid all the cracks. I stuck the torte in the fridge for an hour or so to set the glaze. I made whipped cream but omitted the almond extract since I didn't have any in the house and I don't love almond flavored sweets. I finished off the presentation of the torte with a chocolate covered almond and a dusting of cocoa powder. This was the hubby's first sweet after giving them up for Lent. After tasting it, but before swallowing, he said, "This is f**king delicious." Which is such a sweet compliment (sarcasm) and pretty much sums up this torte perfectly.

Charlie got to eat his slice of torte (not really so please don't call the SPCA on me for feeding the fattest cat alive chocolate) and waddled down the hall to sleep off his food baby. Here he is gracefully waking up from his thirteen hour catnap. Oh to be a fat and lazy cat.

So in conclusion:

• Torte is yummy.
  
• Make it.
  
• Eat it.
  
• Don't share it with Charlie as he has had enough already.
• Go check out all the other twd bloggers' posts.
  

This week I couldn't stop dancing around in the kitchen to this song:

Lover - Devendra Banhart