Fifi's regular chocolate hazelnut torte has become practically a staple at many events. We decided to try to make a reduced-fat version; the following recipe is the result. The fat is almost entirely from the chocolate and hazelnuts (in roughly equal proportions) - we have eliminated all of the butter, and nearly all of the egg yolk. The result had a surprisingly good texture, and cooked up reasonably dense and moist without being heavy. The flavor is good and chocolatey, and the liqueur accentuates the nuts subtly.
This recipe is original, but utilizes techniques which can be found in the book Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts by Alice Medrich, which we highly recommend (along with her book Cocolat).
Nutritional information:
Divided into 12 servings, each serving has about 160 calories, and about 8 grams fat, resulting in 45% of the calories from fat. Pairing with fruit or non-fat sauces reduces the percent calories from fat accordingly.
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put the parchment circle into the pan, very lightly coat or spray the sides with oil.
Chop the chocolate and put in a large bowl.
In a heavy saucepan, blend 1/4 cup sugar and the cocoa; add about half the milk, blend or whisk to a smooth paste, then add the remaining milk. Carefully heat to a simmer, stirring constantly; pour all at once over the chopped chocolate, then stir until smooth.
Whisk the whole egg with 1/4 cup of sugar until smooth; whisk in the liqueur, then stir into the chocolate mixture.
Process the hazelnuts with the flour to a powder, then stir into the chocolate mixture.
Beat the egg whites until foamy; add the cream of tartar. Beat at medium speed, gradually adding the last 1/4 cup sugar, to stiff but not dry peaks.
Lighten the chocolate by folding about 1/4 of the egg whites into it. Carefully fold in the remaining egg whites, 1/4 at a time. Scrape into the prepared pan, and smooth as necessary.
Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pan.
Loosen the sides with a sharp knife. Flatten the crusty edges of the torte with your fingers, until it is level. Holding the cardboard against the torte, invert. Peel off the parchment paper. Some of the crust will fall away; don't worry about it.
Cover with a non-fat glaze, or stencil with confectioner's sugar and serve alone, or on or with a non-fat sauce. The torte pictured above has been stenciled lightly, and is on a plate masked with kumquat-orange sauce. The red border and decorations are a cranberry-orange coulis: in reality, it's leftover cranberry sauce, which was heated, pulsed in a food processor, and seived, then piped onto the plate.
What is mostly missing is the richness provided by butter in a regular torte. (Our regular torte of this size uses 6 ounces - that's 1 1/2 sticks - of butter.) If you want to try to add back a little butter flavor, we suggest stirring pieces of softened butter into the chocolate, just after it has been melted by the addition of the hot cocoa. We speculate that no more than 2 to 4 Tablespoons of butter should be used lest the texture of the cake suffer. (We may experiment with this at a future date, but haven't tried it as yet.) Note that each tablespoon of butter added will increase the calories per serving by over 8, all from fat (and mostly saturated).
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