ÖSTERREICHISCHE KASTANIENTORTE - AUSTRIAN CHESTNUT TORTE

DOUGH
4 eggs, separated
100 g butter, softened
100 g confectioners' sugar, sifted
100 g chestnut puree (I used canned chestnut puree)
90 g pastry flour or cake flour (unbleached)
30 g chestnut flour
40 cake crumbs (I use ground ladyfingers)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
lemon zest, grated (1/2 lemon)
100 g apricot jam, warm (strained, if chunky)

FILLING
500 ml whipping cream
80 g confectioners' sugar, sifted
100 g chestnut puree
6 gelatin leaves, white, or 1 1/2 envelope powdered gelatin (1 1/2 tbsp.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
40 ml rum, heated

DECORATION
More whipped cream, if needed, for rosettes
almonds, unbleached, ground (ca. 1/4 cup)
almonds, unbleached, whole

DOUGH (can be made a day ahead):
1. Preheat oven to 355 F/180 C. Mist 3 round cake pans with oil spray, then line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease parchment lined bottoms. (Or use springform pan and cut into layers).
2. Cream together butter and 1/2 of confectioners' sugar (50 g) until fluffy, add chestnut puree and beat until fluffy. Add egg yolks one by one, beating well after each addition.
3. Whisk egg whites and other 1/2 of sugar until stiff. Gently fold egg whites into butter mixture. In a second bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cake crumbs and lemon zest. Fold flour mixture gently into dough.
4. Distribute dough evenly over cake pans (or springform pan), and smooth surface with spatula. Bake for about 10 - 15 minutes (or 40 minutes for large cake). Let cool completely in pans.

FILLING:
5. Remove cake bottoms from pans (or cut large cake into 3 layers). Brush with warm apricot jam. Whisk together chestnut puree with some whipping cream so that it is creamy (and not stiff). Whisk whipping cream with confectioners' sugar and vanilla until stiff.
6. Soak gelatin leaves in cold water (or use powder following instructions on envelope). Heat rum in small bowl, then dissolve gelatin in the hot rum. Slowly add chestnut cream to gelatin mixture (to prevent lumps), then fold mixture into whipped cream.

ASSEMBLY:
7. Spread 2/3 of filling over lower 2 cake bottoms, place all three on top each other. Spread top and sides of torte with cream. Place leftover filling in pastry bag (or, if it's not enough, use whipped cream) and decorate top with rosettes.
8. Sprinkle torte with ground almonds (except for rosettes) and decorate with whole almonds. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Recipe adapted from "Das grosse österreichische Tortenbuch".