Strawberry Torte

This week I'm posting the dessert recipe first as it should be made first if you were planning on making all of this week's recipes together. It should chill in the refrigerator for at least four hours before serving.

Let's get on with it.

Strawberry Torte

This recipe was adapted from a recipe found here.

Shopping for this torte is something I'll call "An Adventure in Lady Finger Education"... Lady Fingers, as it turns out, are quite tricky. I assumed they were cookies and looked for them first in the cookie aisle of our local Super Target. I found no Lady Fingers. Then I looked in the cookie aisle of Publix and found no lady fingers but I did find a delicious cookie that sort of looked like a Lady Finger. It was an Italian coffee cookie and I think it was called Marguerite. I'd tell you but they're gone. The kids and Sean liked them, too. ;) It was while I was strolling through the bakery department of Publix that I spotted these:



It was as though the angels were singing to me! I grabbed three packages (and kept those delicious Italian cookies in my cart) and proceeded to the checkout.

When the time came to actually make the torte I noticed the original recipe stated that I need "two twelve ounce package of Lady Fingers"... I had three THREE ounce packages. Did I really need to have eight packages of these Lady Fingers? Oy!

So I packaged up two of the munchkins and we headed out to the Winn Dixie that is right up the street from our house. Would they even carry Lady Fingers? I went directly to the bakery. NO LADYFINGERS. Nearby the bakery was an aisle where one can find many Latin style dessert type things and I happened to spot these there:



These were totally different! More like a crunchy cookie than a soft and squishy cake! What to do?

I grabbed four bags of these and headed home.

In the end both cookies are incorporated in the recipe but you manage what you can find. And let me know about your own Adventures with Lady Fingers!

For this recipe I used:

11 ounce cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 7 ounce package Lady Finger Cookies (the hard ones)
2 3 ounce packages Lady Finger Cakes (the soft squishy ones)
1/2 bag of Semi Sweet Morsels
1 16 ounce tub of frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, slightly thawed
1 tablespoon cornstarch
About a pint of large fresh strawberries
Mint springs for garnish

1. Remove frozen strawberries from juice and set aside.



2. In a small saucepan bring the cornstarch and the strawberry juice to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and let cool.



3. (If you have a metal mixing bowl, put it in the freezer now so it gets cold to hold your whipped cream in. If you don't have one I'm sure you'll still be fine.) Beat whipping cream in mixer until stiff peaks form. I used speed 8 on my KitchenAid... it has to be FAST. Remove from mixer bowl and put in chilled bowl.



4. In mixer bowl (don't bother cleaning it out from the whipped cream) whip cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract. Fold in whipped cream.

5. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips

6. Dip Lady Finger cookies in dark chocolate and arrange them on a sheet of wax paper to cool slightly. Once they're all dipped (I needed about 35) arrange them dipped side down around the sides of a Springform Pan.






7. Use Lady Finger cakes to fill in the bottom of the pan, then top with half the cream cheese mixture. Top with another Lady Finger cake layer, then layer the strained strawberries. Pour strawberry cornstarch mixture on top and then spread on the rest of the cream cheese mixture.




8. Arrange fresh strawberries and mint sprigs along the top however you desire and put in the refrigerator to chill for several hours.

9. Remove pan and serve



How did we like it? Delicious. The torte is not only darned pretty, but it's darned tasty, too. I thought it was a wonderful mix of cheesecake and strawberry shortcake. It goes great with coffee, too. Sean gave it the elusive thumbs up from him. Yum.

Please comment and let me know what you think, if you've tried this recipe, what you changed, and how you liked it.

Tomorrow check in for Blue Cheese Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms!