Peach Torte

My most recent issue of Cuisine at Home came in the mail whilst I was away on vacation. This is the mag that several of my previous recipes have come from, including the Super Moist Chocolate Cake, the turkey pomodoro, the balsamic glazed sweet potatoes, and more. Every recipe I've made from this magazine is wonderful. If you like food mags, you should highly consider getting this one. The best part about this mag is the no advertising! It's all recipes and tips. Wonderful.

Flipping through the magazine, I came to the last page and there sat this gorgeous picture of a nectarine torte. I earmarked it and headed to Safeway. Nectarines were outrageously priced - and I couldn't wait to get to the farmer's market to make this; however, peaches were only $.77/lb! Score! I snatched a couple of pounds (well, I paid for them, I didn't really snatch them), came home and made this little beauty. I did modify a bit. The original recipe calls for hazelnuts and I used almonds. The original recipe calls for orange marmalade (not my favorite) and brandy (bad childhood memories of brandy and honey when I was sick) for the sauce, so I used homemade apricot jam and amaretto instead. Yum. What a delight...this will be a repeat recipe for sure, and the finished product is as beautiful to look at as it is to eat.

Peach Torte
Ingredients:

For the Torte, Process:
3/4 sugar
1/2 cup toasted almonds

Add:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbs unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
1 lb. ripe, slightly firm peaches or nectarines, cut into eighths

For the Sauce, Cook:
1/2 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup amaretto liqueur
2 tbs light brown sugar

Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick spray and flour.

2. For the torte, process sugar and almonds in a food processor until nuts are finely ground, 1 minute.

3. Add flour, baking powder and salt; pulse to combine. Toss in butter and pulse about 10 seconds, until mixture looks like coarse sand. Add eggs, vanilla and zest and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.

4. Transfer batter to prepared pan; spread batter evenly and smooth surface. Batter will be thick!! Use a spatula to smooth it in the pan. Arrange the peaches, skin side up, over surface of the batter.

Heading for the oven...

5. Bake torte until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out with few crumbs, 40-45 minutes.

6. Run a knife around edges to loosen torte; let cool in pan on a rack until room temperature, about 30 minutes.

7. For the sauce, cook jam, amaretto and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes.

8. Remove cooled torte from pan, dust with powdered sugar and serve with sauce.

Divine sauce