Chocolate and Almond Truffle Torte

STEP 1: LINE THE TIN AND HEAT THE OVEN

Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F). Butter a 23 cm (9 in) springform tin and line the base with baking parchment. Do not line the sides: you want the base to grip them slightly as it bakes. Sit the tin on a baking sheet so you can move it in one motion.

STEP 2: MAKE THE ALMOND AND AMARETTI BASE

Blitz the 100 g of amaretti in a food processor to a coarse crumb, a little short of sand. Tip into a bowl with the ground almonds, light brown sugar and salt, and stir to combine. Pour in the melted butter and the egg white and work it together with a fork until the mixture clumps when squeezed. Tip into the tin and press it firmly and evenly across the base and about 1 cm up the sides, using the back of a spoon or the base of a glass. Press hard: a loose base crumbles when the torte is cut.

STEP 3: BAKE THE BASE AND RELEASE THE RING IMMEDIATELY

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the base is a deep golden brown and smells strongly of toasted almond. As soon as it comes out of the oven, release and lift away the springform ring. This is Sarah-Jane's own trick and it is preserved here exactly: freeing the sides while the base is still hot stops it pulling against the tin as it contracts, which is what cracks or sinks the middle. Slide the base, still on its metal disc, onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely, at least 40 minutes. It firms up considerably as it cools.

STEP 4: MAKE AND APPLY THE BRUSHING SYRUP

Warm the water and caster sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves, then take it off the heat and stir in the tablespoon of amaretto. Brush it evenly over the cooled base with a pastry brush and leave it to soak in for five minutes. This one tablespoon is the entire alcohol content of the corrected torte: a brushed syrup perfumes the base, where a soaked filling dominates everything around it.

STEP 5: BUILD THE PRALINE LAYER

Stir the coarsely crushed amaretti and the toasted flaked almonds into the 40 g of melted dark chocolate with the quarter teaspoon of almond extract. Spread this in a thin, even layer over the syrup-brushed base, right to the edges, and chill for 10 minutes to set. It does two jobs: it gives the torte a distinct third stratum in the cut, and it puts crunchy, unmistakable amaretti back at the centre of the dish now that the liqueur has been pulled back.

STEP 6: MAKE THE TRUFFLE FILLING

Put the chopped dark chocolate, the golden syrup and the salt in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to just below a simmer, until it trembles at the edges but does not boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Leave it undisturbed for two full minutes. Stir from the centre outwards with a spatula, starting with small circles and widening, until the ganache comes together glossy and completely smooth. Stir in the softened butter a piece at a time, then the almond extract. Do not whisk and do not use a blender: air beaten into the ganache at this stage is what turns a truffle filling chalky. If it looks split or grainy, add a tablespoon of warm cream and stir gently from the centre until it comes back.

STEP 7: FILL AND SET

Sit the springform ring back around the base and close it. Pour the ganache through a fine-mesh sieve onto the chilled praline layer, which catches any unmelted flecks. Tap the tin gently on the worktop two or three times to level the surface and release air bubbles. Refrigerate uncovered for one hour, then cover loosely and chill for at least three hours more, or overnight. The filling is never baked: a fridge-set ganache at this cream ratio cannot dry out, because there is no oven stage in which it could.

STEP 8: FINISH AND SERVE

Take the torte out of the fridge 45 to 60 minutes before serving and let it come to cool room temperature. This matters as much as the recipe does: ganache eaten fridge-cold reads as dry and waxy on the palate however well it is made. Warm a long thin knife in hot water, dry it, and run it around the inside of the ring before releasing. Dust the surface lightly with cocoa powder through a small sieve, set a ring of toasted flaked almonds around the border and a few whole amaretti at the centre. Slice with a hot, dry knife, wiping the blade between cuts.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED:

23 cm (9 in) springform or loose-bottomed round tin, at least 6 cm deep

Baking parchment and a little softened butter for lining

Food processor, for grinding the amaretti

Small saucepan and a heatproof bowl

Digital scales (the chocolate to cream ratio is the whole correction: weigh it)

Fine-mesh sieve

Pastry brush

Offset spatula or palette knife

Cooling rack

Long thin knife and a jug of hot water for slicing