I'll deliver up a simple recipe for baking the oldest known cake type in the western world in just a moment. There are several interesting things about this 'cake' and the first of which is that I think of it as a pie instead of a cake. Second, there is a controversy regarding its origin, and third, it is so simple to put together that no reasonably experienced baker could possibly mess it up . . . and so I recently found two separate ways to do just that. Here's why I think of it as a pie -- or actually as a cobbler -- rather than as a cake: Most of the world concedes that the dessert gets its name from the city of Linz, Austria and that the minimum date of origin for the western world's oldest 'cake' recipe is 1653; said recipe found lurking inside the library of an abbey. On the other hand -- naturally -- one of my cook books claims that rather than tracing back that far and being named after the town of Linz, Austria it really traces back only as far as 1809 and was actually created by a man called Linzer, who was the chef to the Archduke Charles, who was himself the victor over Napoleon at Aspern in 1809. But personally I think I'll give the nod to Linz, Austria instead as they have the better sources of documentation. Still it is an exciting controversy, yes. Well . . . maybe not. From Wikipedia (naturally) we get the best rundown that I've found as of yet in regard to the 'required' ingredients: Now then here is the simplest recipe I've found: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. To make the dough, to be placed in a medium volume mixing bowl: 1 cup unsalted butter, softened. 1 and 2/3 cups of all purpose flour. 1/2 cup sugar. 1/2 cup of finely ground almonds. 1/2 cup of plain breadcrumbs. 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 2 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon (warning -- do not substitute Saigon cinnamon as that will be too strong in taste). Now in reality you can stop at the point above, mix everything together and then add your wet ingredients to make your dough, because the optional ingredients to follow are just that. They will add a subtle taste difference to the finished dough if you include them, but the truth of the matter is that between the interesting dough texture already assured -- with its predominant cinnamon taste -- and the sweet tartness of the cake/pie/cobbler filling to follow they are not strictly necessary in order to produce a delicious tasting end result. So as the baker in charge, it's your judgment call to make. Anyway the optional dough ingredients are as follows: 1 teaspoon of finely ground cloves (optional). Grated rind of 1/2 lemon (optional) Grated rind of 1/2 orange (optional) (now mix every thing above together in a mixing bowl until it's uniform in appearance and texture. Now in order to turn dry ingredients into dough . . . add 1 tablespoon rum (or any wine or brandy you might have on hand. It really does not make a big difference). 1 egg. Now start mixing it together with a spoon until you have formed a dough. Once the dough is completed, set one third of it aside (a word to the wise here, make it a generous one third). Place the other two thirds in a 9 inch in diameter buttered pie pan and then just use your knuckles and then your fingers to press out the dough into a pie shell form with about 3/4 inch of height at the sides. The filling should be tart tasting and red in color and (Very important!) either in jam or preserves form. One jar of either is sufficient volume to do the trick. You can go with raspberry, cherry, or red current. The most prestigious bakery in Linz, Austria prefers red currant -- but it's all good. Once you've added the filling you can tackle the creation of the lattice work strips from the remaining 1/3 of the dough by either using a rolling pin to flatten out a sheet of dough about 1/8th of an inch thick, which you then cut into strips of about 3/4's of an inch width; and then create any lattice work (fancy or simple) you like on top of your cake/cobbler/pie or you just grab a chunk of dough and roll out a strips between your fingers and then go with that as a choice. The result will be rougher looking but also curiously authentic in nature. If you want to do so then at this point you can also whisk an egg and then brush a liquid coating over the lattice strips before putting your torte inside the oven. It's up to you. You put it in the center of your oven's baking rack for one hour. Remove it and let it cool for about thirty minutes and then then dig in or -- again, if you want to, you can take a half a cup of confectioner's sugar, add about a tablespoon of lemon juice to it, stir it until it's in liquid form, and then brush that across the top of your torte before cutting it into slices and serving it up. ==================== Now I heartily recommend that you DO NOT make either of my two recent mistakes. Two days ago I decided to throw together a Linzer Torte (really it takes no time at all to put together) with ingredients on hand. Although I followed the above recipe it wasn't until I reached the filling step that I realized I had absolutely no preserves or jam on hand. Well rather than run to the store for that I pulled a bag of frozen cherries from the freezer, thawed them, dropped them in my pie shell and dusted a layer of sugar on top. It was bound to work, right? Next I discovered that I had miscalculated my division of the dough when I separated a third of it for the lattice work top. So I did not really have enough to form the pretty lattice design -- which for me usually works out as three strips in one direction and three going across. Instead I ended up with a two and two design. Sigh! Anyway an hour later a great looking and wonderfully scented cake/cobbler/pie came from the oven. I let it cool and then dug into . . . a soggy mess that wouldn't even permit the pie shell to firm up. Sure, if you closed your eyes then it tasted okay but aesthetically speaking -- urk! Ahhh . . . adventures in baking. There's never a dull moment in my kitchen!
