Torta Meringa
Ingrediënten
Ingredients for 1 Torte (10in (26 cm) diameter)
- Basic sponge cake for tortes
- Cocoa powder for dusting
For the Cream
- 5 Yolks
- ⅓ cup 65 g Sugar
- ⅓ cup 90 ml Espresso, very strong
- 11 oz 320 g Mascarpone
- 4 Sheets gelatin
- 1¾ cups 420 ml Whipped cream
To Soak
- 1 oz 30 g Instant coffee powder
- 3 tbsp 5 cl Sherry
- 3 tbsp 5 cl Rum
- ¼ cup 120 ml Water
For the Meringue
- 2 Egg whites
- ¼ cup 60 g Granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp 50 g Confectioner’s sugar
Instructies
- Bake a torte with the basic sponge cake, let cool and slice into 4 thin torte bases.
- For the cream, beat egg yolks with sugar and espresso in a bain-marie until creamy.
- Dissolve the moistened gelatin in the warm egg mixture, let cool, and mix in mascarpone one spoonful at a time.
- Fold the whipped cream into the cream.
- For the soaking liquid, mix all the ingredients together.
- Set one biscuit layer in a torte ring and spread some cream on top (do not saturate the first cake layer).
- Place the second layer on top, saturate with the liquid and spread cream on top.
- Repeat until you have used all the cake layers and cream.
- Chill for 4 hours.
- Preheat the oven’s upper heat to 480 °F (250 °C).
- For the meringue, begin beating the egg whites, add the sugar, and beat to stiff peaks.
- Fold in the sifted confectioner’s sugar.
- Spread the meringue on top of the torte, create a decorative pattern, and bake briefly, until the top is browned.
- Chill again for several hours, remove from the torte ring, and dust on the top and sides with sifted cocoa powder.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Pro bakers brown the meringue with a kitchen torch or place it in a “salamander.”
Gasparini or Stanislaus?
The question of who first baked beaten egg whites and sugar to make meringue, sometimes called Spanish wind, is the topic of much culinary speculation. Usually, this airy and light dream, which can be filled with ice cream or whipped cream, is attributed to a Swiss pastry chef named Gasparini. He worked as a confectioner in the small east German city of Meiringen, where the dessert is still called “Meringel.”
But the Polish also reclaimed the creation of the meringue for themselves and they swear on their marzynka that the personal chef of King Stanislaus I invented it. The King later also became the Duke of Lorraine and allegedly brought meringue to the French. They say that Queen Marie Antoinette was a particularly passionate meringue. (See recipe on p. 130.)
The question of who first baked beaten egg whites and sugar to make meringue, sometimes called Spanish wind, is the topic of much culinary speculation. Usually, this airy and light dream, which can be filled with ice cream or whipped cream, is attributed to a Swiss pastry chef named Gasparini. He worked as a confectioner in the small east German city of Meiringen, where the dessert is still called “Meringel.”
But the Polish also reclaimed the creation of the meringue for themselves and they swear on their marzynka that the personal chef of King Stanislaus I invented it. The King later also became the Duke of Lorraine and allegedly brought meringue to the French. They say that Queen Marie Antoinette was a particularly passionate meringue. (See recipe on p. 130.)
