Chocolate Apricot Torte {Sachertorte}

In searching through my pantry, I came across a small bag of apricots that had turned dark brown.  I set them aside, making a mental note that I needed to find a way to use them rather than letting the go to waste.  Shortly afterwards, I came across an Apricot Torte recipe published in the April 2001 Martha Stewart magazine as "dessert of the month" in honor of Passover.  The recipe used apricot jam for a glaze.  Since I'd just received a jar of golden apricot jam from my friend the week before, this recipe seemed perfect.  The luscious recipe used almond flour instead of flour, whipped egg whites rather than leavening to give it height and finely chopped apricots where used to impart moisture and texture.  

As I pulled out the ingredients to prepare the torte and gazed and the lovely magazine photo, I realized that the final torte would appear suspicious with dark brown pieces of apricot distributed throughout.  I wondered if I added some chocolate to the recipe if it might perhaps obscure the dark pieces of apricot.  I'd recalled an chocolate apricot torte called Sachertorte from Alice Medrich's infamous cookbook Chocolat.  I didn't have chocolate bars in my pantry to make the luscious ganache or chocolate glaze the torte is known for so I would need to improvise.   Some may recall a similar recipe published in Rick Rodger's book Kaffeehaus.   The apricot torte recipe in Martha Stewart's magazine called for sweet spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.  

I chose to follow the general guidelines of the recipe but to simplify it and leave out the spices while adding the cocoa.  I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and replaced 1/4 of it with monk fruit.  Rather than use 1/4 cup of apricot jam, I used a whole jar of homemade jam amounting to about 1 cup rather than adding lemon juice and zest.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of almond flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 monk fruit
• 8 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup apricot jam
• 1/4 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 10-inch springform pan with butter.

Finely chop apricots in a food processor.  Combine dry ingredients in a bowl: almond flour, cocoa, monk fruit and chopped apricot.  Whip egg whites until stiff and set aside.  Whip egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar.  Add egg yolks to bowl of dry ingredients.  Fold in egg whites.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until torte is golden brown and cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.  It may be necessary to cover the torte lightly with foil to prevent burning.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of the torte and release from pan.  Allow to cool completely on the wire rack.   Place torte on a serving plate, pour apricot jam over the torte and serve.