Dark Chocolate Port Torte with Malted Whipped Cream

Jump to Recipe

I get strangely anxious about recipes during this time of year. One side of me wants to leap into fall recipes head first because, after a summer of popsicles, they feel novel. But the other half of me, the half that pays attention to the calendar, knows it’s still summer. And there is no greater sin a Canadian can commit than ushering summer out the door prematurely. So what’s a girl to do? Keep on posting summer-friendly eats until the 21st? Or start cooking for the sweater weather ahead? How about both? Yes, both! Today’s Dark Chocolate Port Torte with Malted Whipped Cream is a delicious compromise designed to placate my opposing sides. The torte’s crown of fruit says late summer, while the dark sultry cake underneath flirts with fall.

The term “torte” is fairly liquid. A number of seemingly unrelated cake-like desserts fall under the torte umbrella. Everything from a mille-feuille to the Swedish Princess Cake. As a North American, I always thought a torte was something more akin to a flourless chocolate cake. The rather broad definition of the word torte makes a little more sense when you learn Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Russia use torte and cake interchangeably. Think of all the desserts we classify as cake – the variety is bananas.

Sometimes food terms are muddy and defy a tidy definition. Other terms have little rhyme or reason to them. They can be purely cultural and/or utterly arbitrary. I wanted to get this explanation for my using the word torte out of way in case you were having a #notmytorte moment. This is simply a torte that reflects my interpretation of the word “torte”…or something like that.

This Dark Chocolate Port Torte rhymes. Yeah, thought I’d address the particularly adorable elephant in the room as well. Yes, I am aware and delighted by the silliness of this dessert’s name. But I promise I did select the title purely for its descriptive attributes. The cute rhyme was just an unintended but welcomed bonus. But enough about the title, let’s talk about the torte itself.

This torte is one of the simplest desserts I’ve ever encountered. It takes about as much time as a tray of brownies to make and its ingredient list is brief. Water, sugar, butter, chocolate, port, and eggs just about sums it up. You don’t even need a mixer to make it. All you need is a saucepan, whisk, and cake pan. You’ll probably want either a hand beater or a stand mixer to make the whipped cream. Or, if you have forearms of steel, you can feel free to hand beat that too. I promise I’ll be impressed.

This torte comes together when butter and chopped chocolate are introduced to a simple syrup. The meeting parties are then whisked to form a mixture that can only be described as “smooth glossy goodness.” To that port and a pinch of salt are added and six lightly beaten eggs are whisked in. The resulting batter is poured into a prepared pan and place in a water bath for the duration of the torte’s cook time. The torte does need to cool for a fair amount of time before you remove it from its pan, so you do have to plan ahead. But the actual work involved in making this torte is minimal and far from technical.

The Malted Whipped Cream is exactly what it sounds like. Cream whipped with malted milk powder. I love this cream so much! It tastes like the interior of a Malteser. I opted not to add any sugar to the cream as my malted milk powder was already sporting a fair amount. But feel free to add some if your milk powder is low in sugar or you like things sweeter. Start with a teaspoon of added sugar and work your way up from there.

The fruit arranged on top of this torte is a flourish and it will range in levels of necessity based on who you are. I’m a food stylist, so the crown was basically my primary goal. But, I think it’s fair to say, I find joy in strange things, like, the cross-section of a fig and fiddling sage sprigs for no reason. I exist in a niche, I know. But in all likelihood, you don’t exist in this bizarre microcosm of food obsessives and you care more about the chocolate than artfully scattered bourbon cherries. So an alternative to this foodie fantasy is a scattering of sliced figs, a few scattered blueberries, and a handful of blackberries. You can really use any fruit you like but I would urge you to include figs – they really compliment the torte well.

So that’s everything you need to know about this Dark Chocolate Port Torte with Malted Whipped Cream. It delivers the best of the late summer with a dash of fall. The perfect between-season dessert.

Enjoy!