Austrian · dessert

Sachertorte

Sachertorte reads sweetness 7.6, richness 5.5 and fruity 4.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Austrian dessert, about 4 hr 28 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 2.8 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 8.8 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 1.1 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 3.2 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 5.7 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 2.8 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 7.6 · Richness 5.5 · Fruity 4.2 · Bitterness 2.9 · Floral 2.8 · Salinity 2.6 · Umami 1.4 · Earthy 1.2 · Sourness 1.0 · Smoke 0.8 · Nutty 0.7

What's in it (14)

• dark chocolate — 140 g
• unsalted butter — 140 g
• powdered sugar — 110 g
• eggs — 600 g
• caster sugar — 110 g
• all-purpose flour — 140 g
• vanilla extract — 5 g
• salt — 1 g
• apricot preserves — 200 g
• dark rum — 30 g
• granulated sugar — 200 g
• water — 125 g
• dark chocolate — 150 g
• cream — 250 g

Time & effort: about 4 hr 28 min (1 hr 28 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 202 kcal, 4.4 g protein, 12.1 g fat, 30.5 g carbs

Dietary: Vegetarian · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (12 steps)

1. Melt the 140 g chocolate in a bowl over barely simmering water, 5 minutes, and let it come back down to about 40 C.
2. Cream the butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes until pale and light.
3. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla, salt and the melted chocolate, 3 minutes.
4. Whip the whites, adding the caster sugar in a stream, for 4 minutes to soft peaks that fold over at the tip. Stop there. Stiff, dry meringue is the single commonest fault in a home Sachertorte and it is why so many are dry: it will not fold in without being knocked flat.
5. Fold the whites into the chocolate base in three additions, alternating with the sifted flour, 2 minutes with a light hand.
6. Bake in a lined and buttered 22 cm springform at 170 C for 48 minutes. It will dome and crack; that is correct. A skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Cool in the tin 10 minutes, turn out and cool completely, about 1 hour. Level the dome with a serrated knife and split the cake horizontally.
8. Warm the apricot jam with the rum for 3 minutes and push it through a sieve.
9. Sandwich the two halves with a third of the jam and paint the rest over the top and sides in a thin even coat, about 5 minutes of work. Let it set until tacky. This lacquer of jam is what stops the glaze soaking into the crumb.
10. For the glaze, boil the granulated sugar and water to 108 C, about 8 minutes. Take it off, add the 150 g chopped chocolate and stir until smooth, 3 minutes, letting it cool to about 50 C so it thickens to the consistency of double cream.
11. Pour the glaze over the centre of the cake in one go and let it run. Coax it over the sides with two strokes of a palette knife and no more; worked glaze goes dull and streaked, and the mirror finish is the whole look.
12. Leave 2 hours at room temperature for the glaze to set hard. Serve with unsweetened whipped cream, which is not a garnish but the correction for a very sweet cake.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Rigó Jancsi (Chocolate Cream Slice) — Hungarian
• Banoffee Pie — British
• Bread and Butter Pudding — British
• Plantain Tarts — Jamaican
• Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake) — German

Keep reading: what sweetness, richness, fruity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.