Viennese Chocolate Torte

My ex-grandmother-in-law Anda Sachs was a Jew whose husband had been one of Stalin's favorite engineers. They had lived in luxury, even having a dacha in the Russian countryside, but the tables turned, the couple was separated, and Anda fled to Vienna with their only daughter, my ex-mother-in-law.

Anda was a great cook; this is her no-flour torte recipe which I made yesterday. I've cut the recipe in half because I bake it in a 7" springform pan instead of the original full-size pan. Note: if you want to go back to the full sized version, cook it for about 40 minutes.

Anda's chocolate torte 3 eggs, separated 1 c. sugar juice & rind of 1/2 lemon pinch of salt 2 tablespoons of butter 1-1/2 cups of ground walnuts 3 ounces of bitter chocolate, melted and cooled Preheat oven to 350. Butter the springform pan and coat with breadcrumbs, ground walnuts, or flour. Cream the yolks, sugar, salt, and softened butter; add melted, cooled chocolate, lemon juice and rind. Whip the egg whites and fold them in. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Very important not to overcook - it will continue to firm after it comes out of the oven. Glaze with rasberry jam while still hot. Do not eat till the next day. (You can also glaze it with 3 oz bitter chocolate melted and mixed with 1 teaspoon of butter and two tablespoons of milk, but in this day and age I think that's overkill.)

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