Torta Titano

Ingredients

The wafer layers

• 8to 10 round wafer sheets
• cialde, about 20 cm across
• sold for layered cakes
• or 8 sheets of thin wafer paper
• from an Italian grocer

The hazelnut cream

• 300 ghazelnuts
• toasted and skinned
• 200 gicing sugar
• 200 ggood dark chocolate
• melted and cooled
• 150 gunsalted butter, softened
• or 150 g mild vegetable oil
• a pinch of salt

The chocolate coating

• 250 gdark chocolate
• chopped
• 50 gbutter
• or 50 ml neutral oil

Sometimes added

• a splash of rum
• or a little strong coffee
• chopped hazelnuts, to press on
• a pinch of ground cinnamon

Equipment

• a food processor
• a palette knife
• baking paper
• a flat board to press with
• a long sharp knife

Directions

1. Keep them sealed until you assemble. Hazelnuts must be toasted and skinned. Spread them on a tray in one layer. Roast at one hundred and eighty degrees. Roast for ten to twelve minutes.
2. Shake the tray halfway through. They should smell strongly nutty. Tip them onto a clean tea towel while hot. Wrap them up and rub them vigorously. Let them cool completely before grinding. Warm nuts turn to paste too quickly.
3. Add the icing sugar with the nuts. The sugar stops them turning to butter. Grind them to a fine powder first. Then keep going if you want a paste. Chop it and melt it over barely simmering water. Do not let the bowl touch the water. Stir between every burst of ten seconds. Let the melted chocolate cool to lukewarm. Hot chocolate will melt the butter to oil.
4. Beat it for two or three minutes. Add the ground hazelnut and sugar mixture. Beat until combined and smooth. Add the cooled melted chocolate. Add the pinch of salt to the cream. Beat until it is a smooth spreadable cream. Add rum or coffee now if you are using them. It should be soft but hold its shape.
5. Work on a sheet of baking paper. Lay the first wafer down flat. Spread a thin even layer of the cream. Thin rather than thick is the rule. Spread right out to the edges. Lay the next wafer directly on top. Press very gently to settle it. Press too hard and the wafer cracks.
6. Continue alternating wafer and cream. Finish with a plain wafer on top. Lay a flat board on top of it. A single plate is enough weight. Chill it pressed for two hours. Melt the chocolate with the butter.
7. Use the same gentle method as before. Stir it until it is smooth and glossy. Let it cool until it thickens slightly. Pouring it too hot makes it run straight off. Take the chilled cake out of the fridge. Set the cake on a rack over a tray. Pour the chocolate over the top. Spread it with a palette knife.
8. Work the chocolate down over the sides. Press chopped hazelnuts onto the sides. Let the coating set at room temperature. Then chill the finished cake for an hour. Use a long sharp knife for cutting it. Warm the blade in hot water and dry it. A warm blade cuts chocolate cleanly.
9. Cut with a firm decisive motion. Cut small slices, since it is very rich. Serve it at cool room temperature. Fridge-cold chocolate tastes of very little. Take it out twenty minutes before serving. It keeps a week in an airtight tin.

Technique

• Torta Titano is a manufactured confectionery product, made by Sammarinese firms and sold boxed as a souvenir alongside its better-known sibling Torta Tre Monti. It is bought rather than baked at home. This recipe is a home approximation — fresher and softer than the boxed product, and genuinely good, but not identical. The atlas says so rather than pretending otherwise.
• The wafer sheets are the hard part. They are cialde, the same material as ice cream wafers, sold in packs for layered cakes and for torrone. Making them requires a specialised wafer iron that almost no home kitchen has, so buy them. Keep them sealed until you assemble — a wafer that has absorbed moisture will not crisp up again.
• Do not let any water reach the melting chocolate. A single drop makes it seize into a grainy solid mass and there is no recovering it.
• Toast the hazelnuts and watch them closely. They burn quickly and burnt hazelnuts are bitter beyond use. Rub them in a tea towel while hot to remove the skins; a few clinging skins do no harm.
• Grind the nuts with the icing sugar, which stops them turning to paste. For this cake stop while the mixture is still powdery — keep going and you have praline paste, which is a different thing.
• Press the assembled cake with a single plate as weight, no more. Wafers crack under real pressure.
• Cut with a long knife warmed in hot water and dried, wiping and rewarming between cuts. Sawing shatters the wafer layers.
• San Marino’s claim to be the world’s oldest surviving republic, founded in 301 AD, rests on tradition rather than documentary record. The republic is genuinely very old, which is not in dispute; the specific date is not evidenced, and the atlas states that.

Substitutions

• A good bought chocolate hazelnut spread replaces the homemade cream for a much quicker version, though it is sweeter and less nutty.
• Mild vegetable oil replaces butter in the cream and gives a softer set closer to the commercial product.
• Almonds replace hazelnuts for a different but perfectly good cake.
• Milk chocolate replaces dark chocolate for a sweeter version; use a little less sugar in the cream.
• Thin sheets of wafer paper from a cake decorating supplier replace cialde if those are unavailable.
• A splash of rum or strong coffee in the cream deepens the flavour and is a common addition.

Variations

• Torta Tre Monti is the better-known Sammarinese wafer cake, named for the three towers on Mount Titano, and is built on the same principle.
• Italian torrone uses the same wafer sheets around a nougat filling rather than a chocolate cream.
• A version with alternating layers of chocolate and plain hazelnut cream gives a striped cut face.
• Some versions press whole toasted hazelnuts between the layers.
• Related wafer-and-cream cakes are made across northern Italy and in Austria and Hungary.
• A coffee version, with strong espresso worked into the cream, is made by some producers.

History

A Sammarinese confectionery speciality sold as the republic’s signature souvenir sweet alongside Torta Tre Monti.

Frequently asked questions

What is Torta Titano?

Torta Titano is a dessert from San Marino: layered wafer cake with chocolate and hazelnut cream, named for Mount Titano. A Sammarinese confectionery speciality sold as the republic’s signature souvenir sweet alongside Torta Tre Monti.

How long does Torta Titano take to make?

Torta Titano takes 40 minutes plus chilling of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes serves 10. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Torta Titano?

Yes, within limits. A good bought chocolate hazelnut spread replaces the homemade cream for a much quicker version, though it is sweeter and less nutty. Mild vegetable oil replaces butter in the cream and gives a softer set closer to the commercial product. Almonds replace hazelnuts for a different but perfectly good cake. Milk chocolate replaces dark chocolate for a sweeter version; use a little less sugar in the cream. Thin sheets of wafer paper from a cake decorating supplier replace cialde if those are unavailable. A splash of rum or strong coffee in the cream deepens the flavour and is a common addition.

What is the most important thing to get right in Torta Titano?

Keep them sealed until you assemble. Hazelnuts must be toasted and skinned. Spread them on a tray in one layer. Roast at one hundred and eighty degrees. Roast for ten to twelve minutes.