Unlike most people I know he has a fondness for apricots that I share. So after a bit of thought, I decided to put together a sacher-torte style confection as his birthday present. As a by-product, I also assembled a small box of expresso-hazelnut-dark chocolate truffles for the rest of the group.
Sacher-Torte Confections
Chocolate cups
Foil Cupcake Liners
BitterSweet Chocolate (about 16 oz)
- Melt Chocolate in a double boiler
- Place several liners in a stack, make sure the innermost is foil.
- Place in the freezer to cool.
- Pour 2 tablespoons of chocolate into the liner set. Rotate for even coverage. Place in freezer.
- Repeat every several minutes until you have at least 1/4 inch coverage covering the inside of the cup.
- Place finished cups in the freezer to keep chilled until filling.
- Leave chocolate on the heat.
Apricot Mouse Filling
8 oz of California Blenheim Apricots (I get mine from Trader Joes)
8 oz of whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/4 cup of natural sugar
2 teaspoons of gelatin
ice cubes
water as needed
- Place apricots in a pot or saucepan.
- cover with water
- Add salt and lemon juice
- Heat till mixture is simmering
- Let simmer until apricots fall apart while stirring, add water as necessary to float the apricots
- Add sugar and gelatin
- Let simmer until a thick mixture forms.
- Turn off heat
- Place whipping cream in the freezer for about 8 minutes.
- Place ice cubes in a metal mixing bowl to cool it.
- Take cream out of the freezer
- Empty cubes from the bowl and dry with a clean towel (paper works best here)
- Place cream in bowl
- Using a whip, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
- Fold in the apricot mixture
- Place mixture in the fridge to begin setting.
Expresso-Hazelnut-Chocolate Truffle Topping
2 oz of butter
1/4 cup of natural sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Leftover chocolate from the chocolate cups
4 oz of chopped hazelnuts
12 oz of freshly made hazelnut coffee
- In a small pot on low heat, mix butter, salt and vanilla and sugar.
- Place coffee in a microwaveable bowl.
- Heat the coffee (3 minutes at a time at full power) in the microwave until it is reduce in volume by half.
- Add butter mixture to the coffee. Continue the heating process until the mixture thickens significantly (about that of the melted chocolate). The aroma of hazelnuts should fill the air.
- Fold the hazelnut coffee mixture into the leftover chocolate.
- Place the mixture into a mixing bowl and whip at high speed until the mixture forms feathers.
- Take cups from the freezer and fill with apricot mousse mixture.
- Replace in the freezer to cool for 10 minutes.
- Take a spoon, top off the cup with the Hazelnut truffle mixture.
- Top with chopped hazelnuts
- Add frozen fruit to the apricot mixture and serve with a fruit sauce (raspberry works well).
- Roll the truffle mix into balls and cover with the leftover chopped nuts. Cover and store immediately (Freeze if not to be consumed within 24 hours).
