In the small town of Vignola, near Modena (not far from Bologna) lies a small pastry shop called Pasticceria Gollini. The Gollini family owns this place since 1886. Roughly 100 years ago pastry chef Eugenio Gollini came up with a simple yet delicious chocolate cake. At the beginning it was called “black cake”. He then ecided to pay a tribute to a great historic figure from his town, 16th century architect Jacopo Barozzi, by naming his creation after him.
To this day the original Torta Barozzi is only available from this family-run pastry shop.
There are many attempts trying to replicate the cake, this one being one of them. And I am happy to fail because this is the kind of heritage that belongs to the family of the artisan who created it. A piece of their cake is a piece of Italian history.
Nonetheless I can have fun trying to solve the mystery. So here it is, my own version of the Torta Barozzi. A chocolate brownie looking cake with a toasted coffee flavor.
The ingredients are actually declared on the package, so at least I should have had that one right.
Torta Barozzi Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 100 g white almonds 3.5
- 50 g peanuts toasted and salted 1.76 oz
- 220 g dark chocolate 7.76 oz
- 120 g butter 4.2 oz
- 4 eggs
- 140 g sugar 4.9 oz
- 15 g unsweetened cocoa powder 0.5 oz
- 8 g instant coffee 0.3 oz
- 30 g hot water 1 oz
- 20 g rum 0.7 oz
- powdered vaniglia bourbo or extract the tip of a tsp
Instructions
- Toast the almonds in the oven (and the peanuts in case they are not already toasted) at 160° C for 6 minutes (320° F). Once cool reduce both to flour in the mixer.
- Chop the chocolate and melt it in a bain-marie together with the butter.
- In the stand mixer or with the handheld mixer work the egg yolks together with the sugar and vanilla until fluffy and white (roughly 5 minutes).
- Add the rum, the instant coffee dissolved in the hot water and the sifted cocoa powder. Mix well.
- Also add the peanut and almond flours and mix again. The dough will be quite stiff.
- Work the egg white to a almost firm consistency and gently fold them into the dough.
- Line the baking pan with aluminum foil and bake in the pre-heated oven at 180° C (355° F) for 35 minutes with the oven door slightly open (use a wooden spoon or a small ball of aluminum foil).
- Let it col off completely before cutting the cake into small rectangles.