“Big results with little effort” — that’s what I’ve scribbled on the margin of this recipe, so it’s a great choice during the busy holiday season. This torte is dense, moist and wonderfully rich, and stars the classic Italian pairing of chocolate and hazelnuts, which complement each other beautifully. It’s elegant, sophisticated and delicious, yet easier to make than most American-style chocolate cakes. 

What matters? Be sure to remove the torte from the oven when the center is still soft. If you wait until a tester comes out clean, it’s overbaked. 

Hazelnut flour is available in many groceries and online. If you want to make your own, process toasted, husked hazelnuts in a food processor until they’re finely ground. One cup of nuts makes a little over one cup of meal. The torte is so lush that small servings seem perfectly sized, so I usually make it in a 7-inch pan, but you can double the recipe and prepare in an 8 1/2 inch pan.

Italian chocolate hazelnut torte

Make in a 7-inch shiny metal springform pan. Recipe works at any elevation.

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon granulated sugar, preferably superfine
• 1 cup of hazelnut flour/meal

Chocolate glaze

• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup 

Prepare the oven: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center position. Grease your pan with a baking spray that contains flour, line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper and grease the paper. Set the pan aside. 

Prepare the ingredients: Cut the butter into 10 pieces, finely chop the chocolate and combine both in a microwave-safe bowl. Place in a microwave oven and heat at a low temperature (#4 out of 10, for example) until both are almost fully melted. Remove from the oven and stir until fully melted and smooth. Set the mixture aside until it reaches room temperature. You can refrigerate it to speed up the process, but check it often, it shouldn’t get cooler than room temperature.

Mix the ingredients: Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add the sugar, and use an electric mixer to beat until the mixture thickens, increases in volume, gets very pale in color, and makes a ribbon when it slides off a spoon. Add the melted chocolate/butter and use the mixer’s lowest speed or fold by hand only until it’s blended. Finally, stir in the hazelnut flour until fully combined into a thick batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and level and smooth the top. Rap the pan on a counter to dislodge any air bubbles and place it in the oven.

Bake: Bake only until the top is set and looks dry but a tester inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs. Start checking at about 22 minutes. It’s critical that you remove the torte from the oven when the center is still moist or the texture will be dry. Rely on how it looks and tests rather than time in the oven. The butter and chocolate will firm up as it cools, so err on the side of under-baking. Move the pan to a rack. If the edges are higher than the torte’s center, gently press them down with the back of a spoon. Cool the torte completely. At this point you can cover and refrigerate it until the next day.

Invert the pan over a serving plate: Remove the pan sides, let the torte fall onto the plate and remove the parchment-paper liner.

Make the glaze: Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a small bowl. Combine the cream and corn syrup in a microwave-safe bowl, place in a microwave and heat it to simmering. Immediately pour the mixture over the chocolate, make sure all the chocolate is submerged, then set it aside while the chocolate melts. Stir until it’s smooth and shiny and set it aside to thicken slightly. Pour it over the top of the torte, tilt the torte or use an offset spatula to spread it so it covers the top and runs down the sides. Refrigerate the torte until the glaze sets. Serve or cover and refrigerate it for a day. Serve it at room temperature or chilled.

Editor’s note: This recipe is a variation of one published in Bon Appetit Magazine. 

Vera Dawson’s column “High Country Baking” publishes biweekly in the Summit Daily News. Dawson is a high-elevation baking instructor and author of three high-altitude cookbooks. Her recipes have been tested in her kitchen in Frisco, where she’s lived since 1991, and altered until they work at elevation. Contact her at veradawson1@gmail.com.