Dorie Greenspan’s Mocha Walnut Torte

Oh yummm! Since cakes are not the usual temptation allowed in our household (too hard to resist!) and our tastes are generally towards not-too-sweet, I truly appreciate a really good cake that goes together easily, also keeping some for future times we crave just a slice. Tortes made with nuts work really well for this. And there is something slightly magic about folding the egg white into the nutty batter that makes me all optimistic.

This mocha walnut torte from Dorrie Greenspan meets all of those criteria, and can be prettied up with a glaze if you are serving it all for guests, or you can be more austere with a dusting of sugar or some perfect berries. We got lucky, and some friends dropped by with fresh lime curd, which was a perfect accent along with a dab of cream (softly whipped, mascarpone or crème frâiche)  to serve, and just with a slight dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

A recipe that is effortlessly gluten-free is a bonus–no tradeoffs or detectible substitutions are involved, so this is very useful for sharing or entertaining.

With so few ingredients this mocha walnut torte recipe by the wonderful Dorie Greenspan ensures the main flavors are front and center, specifically the tannic nuttiness of the walnuts and the deep dark chocolate hit. We enjoyed how light the end result is. With no flour and with the whipped egg whites the cake has a lovely crumbly (in a good way) barely-holds-together texture that we really liked alongside a dark espresso.

I chose not to do the optional glaze and I really don’t think the recipe needs it. For my taste though, I think I’d rather reduce the cinnamon or remove it all together. I think its flavor distracts from the rest.

This mocha walnut torte is a wonderful surprise. I haven’t used walnuts in a cake of this sort, only almonds, so I didn’t really know what to expect. The headnote for the recipe states that walnuts bring a “bitter” side.  You won’t perceive it as bitter, just really good, I might even prefer it to those made with almonds. It comes together fairly easily using pantry ingredients.

The mocha walnut torte smelled heavenly while baking. On this gloomy day, I was transported to Vienna with my lovely torte and a cup of coffee. The cake has a really nice texture. I erred on the side of under-pulsing in the food processor and I loved the bits of nut and chocolate.

A dessert with nuts as the main ingredient will always get my attention AND when the recipe called for chocolate and coffee, I was all in. This mocha walnut torte is truly an unfussy dessert and most cooks would readily have all the necessary ingredients on hand to whip this up. The recipe was easy to follow and was as delicious at room temperature or chilled, serving it with a dollop of whipped cream to mellow some of the richness.

The combination of all the ingredients makes for a delicious and substantial torte that easily serves 10 to 12 people and I guarantee will impress your guests.  My taste testers loved the torte and were surprised by how few ingredients it included. The other great thing about this torte is it is gluten-free!

I did add one minor change to the process. From all my past baking experience, any nut has more flavor if lightly toasted before adding them to any baked good. So, I lightly toasted my walnuts, letting them cool completely before putting them in the food processor.

The one crucial instruction to pay attention to in the directions is do not overdo the very last step of gently folding in the meringue, a very important step.

Oh, my. Hang on a second while I swoon over my plate.

This cake is absolutely lovely. It’s a very adult flavor: dark, rich chocolate with a bitter edge from the coffee, walnuts, and ganache, and a great nubbly texture from the walnuts and chocolate bits in the batter and just to gild the lily, it is both gluten-free AND suitable for Passover! It’s also surprisingly easy to make; if I were eating this at a restaurant I would have assumed it to be a much more complex cake.

Though I doubt we’ll find out about its keeping qualities, I’m excited to read in the recipe that it holds up well in addition to being gorgeously delicious. We didn’t wait for the ganache to cool before trying it so didn’t make whipped cream, but I might go whip some up for the rest of the cake because that will be a fantastic foil for the deep, dark bitter chocolatey-ness! I think if I make this for a special dessert I might make candied walnut halves for fancy decoration.

I was anxious to try this mocha walnut torte as a treat for my coworker with a gluten allergy. I will be making this again and again. Reading over the recipe, and looking at the photo, I expected this to be quite dense. It was surprisingly airy, very moist, and so rich. The ground chocolate melted so evenly it was hard to believe there was no cocoa or melted chocolate in the batter. I used 60% bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate and ground espresso.

I did make the half recipe of ganache and drizzled it over the top. Small wedges with a dollop of whipped cream on the side were a perfect dessert.

If you’re looking for a rich and decadent flourless chocolate cake, look no further. It is packed with deep coffee and cinnamon flavors that blow most other cakes of this variety out of the water.

Be warned though, once paired with the ganache, this is a RICH cake. The recipe says to make a half batch of ganache and drizzle it, though a half batch is still enough for a flood of biblical proportions. Unless your intention is to make a lake in the center (and there’s nothing wrong with that), drizzle with as much as you’d like and save the rest for another purpose. I topped mine with toasted chopped walnuts and shared them with some very happy neighbors.

I’m not an enthusiastic baker, nor a chocolate lover, and I find following baking instructions to the letter difficult. Having said that, the preamble of this mocha walnut torte recipe, evoking European desserts and rich coffees, had me imagining the clink of china saucers on marble tabletops before I even had it printed out.

Also, I saw that I could skip the ganache; using whipped cream instead cuts the chocolate a little, and this cake is RICH. I recommend toasting and cooling the walnuts before starting the recipe.