Almond and Cherry Torte

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A happy convergence of incidents led to the creation of this buttery torte. While sorting through my pantry, I found a half-used container of glaceed cherries that were still edible and soft enough to use. The prior evening I'd stumbled on a, new-to-me, site called Cake Crumbs and Cooking The feature that day had been a cherry cake that sounded like it would be perfect for tea or dessert. A version of the recipe also appeared in Delia Online and in the BBC Good Food Magazine. Thus, armed with cherries and several recipes, all of which had been well-received, I began to make my first ever cherry cake. The first step was to convert ingredients from metric to standard US measure. That done, I made a few changes to the base recipe to reflect the fact I had no self-rising flour and only half the cherries suggested in the original recipe. Undeterred, I carried on and within two hours had a lovely cake with a soft buttery crumb and marvelous almond flavor. Unfortunately, while they added texture to the cake the taste of the cherries was barely perceptible. In an effort to keep the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake, I halved and rinsed the cherries as had been suggested. I took the additional step of tossing them with flour before adding them to the cake batter. All that changed nothing. They sank anyway and probably lost flavor when their syrup was washed away. The strange thing is that I liked the cake and found the fruit almost superfluous. The cake is barely sweet but the almond meal and topping make it extremely flavorful. It is far more like a Viennese torte that a cherry cake. Would I make it again? Not with glaceed cherries, unless I had leftover bounty from my Christmas cooking. While I've heard some classify this dessert as being cheap as chips, it is not inexpensive to make and, while it is lovely, I like more bang for my buck. For those of you who are curious, here's the recipe.

Almond and Cherry Torte...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, adapted from several British sources

Ingredients:
2 sticks (8-oz.) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 small container (8-oz.) glace cherries, halved and rinsed
1 cup (4-oz.) ground almonds
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup (2-oz.) flaked almonds
Confectioners' sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of a high sided 8-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease paper. Dust bottom and sides of pan with flour.
2) Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until incorporated. Add almond extract and mix to combine.
3) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Fold into egg mixture. Fold in cherries, almonds and milk.
4) Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Level top and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake for 1¼ -1½ hrs or until cake has risen and is firm to the touch.
5) Remove cake from oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes. Turn pan onto wire rack to cool completely.
6) Dust top of cake with confectioners' sugar just before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

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Toscatarta - One Perfect Bite
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Chinese-Style Almond Cookies - One Perfect Bite

Chinese-Style Almond Cookies

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Almost everyone is familiar with the almond cookies that are served in Chinese restaurants. Did you know they are not Chinese? They originated in the West, and while they have been adopted by the Chinese, they are a creation of American-Chinese restaurants that spread, with affluence, back to the East. While they love sweetness, the Chinese are more likely to combine sweet with savory rather than serve a separate course of each. These days you will find Chinese bakeries and the desserts they sell are a testament to the ready acceptance of sweets by the Chinese people. The bakeries are important because most Chinese homes don't have an oven, so they can't do their own baking. I'm not the person you want to teach you the ins and outs of moon cakes, but I can walk you through the very simple steps required to make Chinese-style almond cookies. This is a lovely recipe to have in your arsenal and the cookies are truly simple to make. The recipe was created by Nancie McDermott. Here's how it's done.

Chinese Almond Cookies...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspooon salt
6 tablespoons butter, room temperatue
6 tablespoons shortening
1 large egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
16 to 32 whole almonds, with or without skins

Directions:
1) Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk or sift to combine. Set aside.
2) Combine butter, shortening, egg, sugar and almond extract in another medium-sized bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until all ingredients are combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
3) Add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir with a wooden spoon until everything comes together into a smooth dough. Dough is easier to shape when cold. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.
4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5) Divide dough into two cylinders. If you opt to make 16 large cookies, roll each cylinder to a diameter of 2 inches. To make 32 smaller cookies, roll each cylinder to a diameter of 1-1/4 inches. Cut each cylinder into rounds and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, positioning them about 2-inches apart. Press a whole almond into center of each cookie.
4) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are firm and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets. When completely cool transfer to a serving dish or an airtight container. Yield 16 large or 32 small cookies.

Other recipes for Chinese-style almond cookies can be found at:

About.Com: Chinese Food - Chinese Almond Cookies

Sunset: Chinese Almond Cookies

Appetite for China: Chinese Almond Cookies