Linzer Torte

My grandfather – who was famous in my family for his malapropisms – once said, “You’ve got your four food groups: you’ve got your chopped liver, chicken soup, chicken, and dessert.”  Clearly, he was referring to the four courses of a meal, but he might just as well have been talking about the four major food groups of the Ashkenazi Jews.  I’ve never been to Eastern Europe – must less lived in a turn-of-the-century shtetl – but I think it’s pretty safe to say that it wasn’t exactly awash in fresh fruits and vegetables.  As near as I can tell, they had potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, and . . . more potatoes.  Plus chicken, and chicken, and chicken, and chopped liver, and chicken fat, and chicken intestines, and occasionally brisket.  That’s about it.  I don’t think they had ANY fresh fruit.  Maybe apples.  But, then again, maybe not.  As for spice, well, there doesn’t seem to have been any.  Certainly nothing approaching the zing of a chili pepper.

So, instead of wincing about all the less-than-delicious things they were constrained to eat (Shav?  Kishka, anyone?)  I think it’s worth celebrating the tasty things that they did create.  Take linzer torte.  It’s technically Austrian, but it’s pretty clear that it was also made by Jews who were trying to scrounge up dessert without the benefit of fresh fruit.  And it is delicious, one of my very favorites.

It’s also dead easy to make, I promise, so long as you make peace with the fact that your lattice crust will not look like Martha Stewart’s.  The dough is singularly lacking in elasticity.  I haven’t a clue why this is the case, since I know precisely nothing about the chemistry of baking.  All I can tell you is that it will be nearly impossible to keep the strips of dough from breaking, much less weave an real lattice crust.  On this one issue, it is required that you have a come-to-Jesus moment.  Do some deep breathing exercises, or meditate, or listen to some Traveling Wilbury’s: do whatever you need to do.  Then smile, because in very short order you will have a really great dessert that pairs perfectly with a cup of coffee.

One more thing: please use really good quality raspberry jam.  It really does make all the difference in the world in this dish.

LINZER TORTE

1 cup hazelnuts (or hazelnut flour, if you can find it)

1 1/4 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 orange (the zest of it)

1 stick of butter

1 egg

1 ¼ cups seedless raspberry jam

½ tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Butter a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom (I just use the paper from the stick of butter and wipe it all around the pan until it is thinly coated)

If you are using hazelnuts, throw them in a food processor and grind them up until they are flour-like.  If you are using hazelnut flour, just throw it into the bowl of a food processor.  Then add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, egg and stick of butter, and combine until it forms a ball. 

Dump the dough out onto a counter.  Roll it out between two pieces of waxed paper (so it doesn’t stick to everything).  Using about 2/3 of the dough, line the bottom of the tart pan with the dough, and make sure it goes all the way up the sides. 

In a bowl, mix together the jam and the vanilla, and pour it into the tart, making sure it spreads evenly throughout the tart.

Cut the rest of the dough into ¾ inch wide strips.  Lay them on top of the jam, and press each strip into the dough at the sides of the pan.

Bake until browned and bubbly, about 30-45 minutes.