Dobrotska torta (Boka Kotorska)
This old-fashioned cake from the town of Dobrota (Boka Kotorska) is on a par with the Rab, Imotski and Makarska cake and all of them are connected by an almost identical almond filling as the wrapper / base of the dough. This is not surprising considering that they originated in a narrow area, in cities or areas along the Adriatic Sea, where there may have been a lack of walnuts, but there was an abundance of almonds. A glass or two of maraschino and some eggs, and the rest was left to the imagination of those who prepared them. The recipe is from my favorite cookbook "Dalmatian cuisine", D.M-R. This Easter, despite the "Age of the Crown", it adorned our table.
Preparation steps
- Dough
- Sift the flour and make a hole in the middle to which you need to add egg yolks, sugar, fat and so much warm milk that a harder elastic dough can be kneaded. Divide the dough into 3 parts, cover with a cloth so that it does not dry while preparing the filling or marzipan.
- Marzipan
- Immerse the almonds in a bowl of boiling water beforehand and leave them to soften and swell (maximum 10 minutes), then remove the skin (take each almond between your thumb and forefinger and squeeze so that the skin cracks and is removed). Thus cleaned almonds should be dried in an oven with a fan or conventional heaters at 150 degrees C for about 15-20 minutes. When drying, the oven door must be closed to allow moisture to escape and the almonds to dry first. After drying, they should be ground. This step can be done in the previous days as well.
- Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt into a firm foam, then add the powdered sugar little by little, stirring constantly with a mixer. When the mixture is firm and shiny, set the mixer aside and mix the maraschino and grated lemon zest by hand (with a spatula or wire) and finally, add the ground almonds several times. Stir everything together lightly so that all the ingredients come together evenly.
- Procedure
- Roll out the first part of the rested dough in a circle on a lightly floured surface. Lean the bottom of the cake tin (maximum 22 cm in diameter) on the dough and cut it around with a cutter. Coat the mold very thinly with butter / margarine / grease and then transfer a circle of dough to the mold. The dough is pliable and does not crack during transfer and shaping. Roll out the second part of the dough into a strip the length and height of the rim of the mold, which should then be pressed against the inside of the rim and connected with your fingers to the bottom. Arrange the marzipan (stuffing) evenly in the middle. From the third part of the dough, a decorative rose (snail) is made, and from the leftovers, decorations are made for the cake cover, such as mesh strips, or a dough ring that will be placed along the edge of the mold or something similar. I opted for the latter method, but I think a net of strips of dough and a decorative snail in the middle would fit best.
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C and bake the cake for about 15 minutes, then increase the temperature to 185 degrees (up to 190 degrees) and bake for another 40 minutes, covering the top of the cake with aluminum foil to keep it. as soon as it fades. The finished cake should be cooled and sprinkled with powdered sugar mixed with vanilla sugar. NOTE: The cake is the tastiest and softest if left at room temperature for at least 2 days before use.
