Fall is the best time to cook, right? I love to pull on a sweater and go for a walk on a crisp sunny day, seeing how the leaves are changing, and then coming home to make sausages with sauerkraut, or braised pork shoulder with noodles, or roasted chicken and root vegetables, or an apple or pear dessert.
This torte from the cover of October's Bon Appetit brings together two great Washington ingredients -- apples and hazelnuts -- so I thought I'd try it.
The crust is unusual, made with dry breadcrumbs, ground hazelnuts and lemon zest. Instructions for making it are confusing and led to several reader questions and comments online, including mine. You start out with 8 cups of ground fresh French or Italian breadcrumbs, and then you toast them. This should result in about 3 cups; for me it didn't, but whatever you end up with, go ahead and mix it together with the other ingredients as instructed. I wish the recipe had just called for the fresh bread in weight, rather than in cups. That would have made it easier not only to measure the breadcrumbs but also to purchase the loaves in the first place.
I served the torte with vanilla whipped cream, and I loved the flavor of the apples, hazelnuts and lemon, but wasn't particularly fond of the breadcrumbs' texture. No blame here for the recipe's creator, celebrity chef Lydia Bastianich; after all, fall cravings are so subjective and personal. But next time I'll make a more conventional apple pie with a flaky crust.
In the meantime, click here for the Bon Appetit recipe if you'd like to try this. The flavors are definitely nice with an old-world Italian meal.
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This is one of those show stopping desserts. The fact that is seasonal just makes it better.
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