Sponge Methods: Dobos Torte

Day 3: Recipes for Swiss Roll sponge cake for layers of Dobos Torte, Mocha Buttercream, and Caramel. Assembly of Dobos Torte


French Buttercream
250 g Sugar
60 ml/ 2 oz Water
90 g/ 3 oz Egg Yolk
300 g Butter
¾ tsp Vanilla

Mocha Buttercream
French Buttercream with 3 oz melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate and 20 ml of coffee extract

Swiss Roll
350 g Egg Yolks
235 g Sugar
250 g Cake Flour
525 g Egg Whites
7 g Salt
175 g Sugar
175 g Almond Paste

Preparing Swiss Roll for Dobos Torte
-Be careful with nut paste- you can over agitate it and it will separate.
-It is very important for the paste to be moist.
On low, spin the paste with a paddle to remove any lumps. Add a little egg yolk. It will turn into a thicker paste. Add the larger amount of sugar; it will act as an abrasive. Scrape the bowl really well. Turn it up to speed 2 and add the rest of the egg yolk. In a new bowl use a whisk and on speed 2 whip the egg whites and salt. Sprinkle in the sugar, move up to speed 3, and whip until you reach stiff peaks. Sift the flour and fold it into the almond paste mixture. It will be a much stiffer batter than the Genoise. Add 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it; you don’t loose as much aeration when folding in the rest of the whites. With everything well combined pour the batter onto a sprayed, lined, and sprayed full sheet pan. Smooth evenly with a large offset spatula. Run your thumb along the edge to clean the pan and bake the sponge in a 425 deck oven or 375 convection oven. This will bake very quickly, about 8- 10 minutes. You want barely any color on it.

Use a cake ring to cut 6 layers from the cooled Swiss Roll sponge.

Assembling Dobos Torte

-In a small pot caramelize 8 oz of sugar and 1 oz of water. The color is key in this case. It will continue to color when the pan is taken off the heat. It should be around 380 degrees.

-Pour the caramelized sugar over the 6th cake layer on top of a sheet of parchment paper. Using a small offset spatula spread the sugar evenly across the top. Put aside to let cool. After a few minutes when the sugar has initially set, use your chef’s knife to cut the layer into 8 even slices. If you wait until the sugar has completely cooled, as I did, the sugar will split and crack when you cut it.

-Brush the other sponge layers with the simple syrup and spread the mocha buttercream on top.
-Press down with the next layer.
-Finish all layers in the same way.

-Coat the sides with the buttercream. Because there will be nuts on the side of the torte the buttercream doesn’t have to be as thick as the top.
-Press the nuts into the side. Crush them lightly in your hand before you press them on; you still want to see that they are almond slices.
-Pipe swirls of buttercream on top- ¼” from the edge- dividing the cake into 8 slices.

-Using the 8 cut caramel coated slices of sponge cake from before, arrange them leaning against the swirls on top of the torte, all in the same direction.

I was pleased for the most part with the final product of the Dobos Torte. In doing it again I would cut the caramel top layer when the caramel was still warm in the hopes it would not crack. I would also make a larger amount of the mocha French buttercream so I could make the swirls on top large enough to support the sponge on top.