Hotel Sacher · Since 1832
The Original Sacher-Torte
A dense chocolate sponge, a layer of apricot jam under and inside, a dark chocolate glaze, a round seal and a dome of unsweetened whipped cream: the Original Sacher-Torte has been made by hand at the hotel since 1832 and fought over in court since the 1950s.
Taste profile
Pair it with
A Melange and a glass of water on a silver tray.
Franz Sacher, sixteen, an apprentice in Prince Metternich’s kitchen, made the torte for a dinner in 1832 when the head chef fell ill. His son Eduard refined it at Demel and founded the hotel in 1876, where it has been baked ever since: some 360,000 a year, by hand, glazed with a chocolate that sets to a soft shell. Demel makes a rival version with one layer of jam; a seven-year lawsuit in the 1950s and 60s gave the hotel the word “Original” and Demel a triangle seal.
The torte is dry by design and eaten with unsweetened whipped cream, which is the balance. In its wooden box it keeps two weeks, and the hotel ships it worldwide.
The home version · serves 6
Ingredients
- 130 g dark chocolate
- 130 g butter, soft
- 100 g icing sugar
- 6 eggs, separated
- 100 g sugar
- 130 g flour
- 200 g apricot jam
- Glaze: 200 g sugar, 125 ml water, 150 g dark chocolate
- Unsweetened whipped cream
Method
- Melt the chocolate; beat butter and icing sugar until pale, add the yolks one by one, then the chocolate.
- Whisk the whites with the sugar to peaks, fold into the chocolate mixture alternately with the sifted flour.
- Bake in a 24 cm tin at 170 °C for 55 minutes; cool upside down on a rack.
- Cut in half, spread warm sieved jam inside and all over the outside.
- Boil sugar and water to 108 °C, stir in the chocolate, cool to a thick pour and glaze the torte in one movement. Serve with unsweetened cream.
Where to taste it
