Huguenot Torte

It's pronounced \ˈhyü-gə-ˌnät\, but if you don't know how to interpret that... try,"hugh' - gen - aught", that's a hard G in the middle syllable, as in "gun".  Of course, the name is of french origin, but we Americans (or maybe even the Brits) bastardized it, so it ends in "not" instead of "no".

I heard about this recipe while listening to NPR a couple of months back and just had to try it... and it is amazing and so easy to make.  Here is the transcript from the NPR story which is an interview with the two brothers (Matt and Ted Lee) who wrote a new cookbook of South Carolinian recipes.  http://m.npr.org/news/Books/177367797

I live in Fort Collins (elevation ~5000'), but I didn't do anything special to the recipe and it turned out just as their description said it would.  During the baking it rises up very tall (be sure to use a tall sided dish) and then falls at the end of the baking time or when you take it out.  The top is puffy and crispy and the inside is all gooey and caramelly (I'm sure that's a word).  It tastes a bit like pecan pie, but much easier to make since  you don't have to make a crust.

The recipe served 5 of us.  They were small servings, but it is very sweet so smaller servings would be fine (think about it... 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar to serve 5 or 6 people, yikes).  I think it would have served 6 or 8 just fine, in light of the fact that we lost some when it overflowed the dish (thus, my admonition to use a big enough dish).

I decided to put a cookie sheet below the dish to catch any overflow, and I'm glad I did; it would have been a mess to clean the oven.  I think if I use a deeper dish that won't be a problem (but I'll still use something to catch any overflow, just in case).

I agree with their assessment to add some buttermilk or sour cream to the whipping cream to help cut the sweetness.  I would normally add sugar to the cream, but didn't this time, and I'm glad I didn't.

Here is the recipe just as you find it in their cookbook:

• unsalted butter for greasing the dish
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 Granny Smith or other tart apple, cored, peeled, and diced (1 cup)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons whole buttermilk or sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they're creamy and frothy. Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, apple, pecans, and vanilla, whisking to combine after each addition.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top of the torte is crusty. Remove the torte from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.

4. Whip the cream with a small amount of buttermilk or sour cream until stiff peaks form. Cut into individual portions — they will be lumpen and misshapen, with shards of crust and spoonfuls of ooze, but no matter — and serve with dollops of the whipped cream.

Serve about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven... give it just enough time for it to cool so you don't burn your tongue.