Recipe from Katherine Yang
Adapted by Gabrielle Hamilton
- Total Time
- 35 minutes, plus chilling and drying
- Rating
- 4(483)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This towering trifecta of flavor and texture — crisp wafer, creamy peanut butter and glossy dark chocolate — comes together quickly and easily. The hidden star here is Katherine Yang’s utterly delicious peanut butter cream, which binds the layers. It’s savory and nutty, silken and not too sweet. Wafer sheets come in standard 8½-inch rounds, so tempering the chocolate in a 10-inch-wide, shallow pan is the simple trick to easy dipping. You can use an offset spatula to spread the filling, or for a more impressive presentation, use a star tip, and pipe swirls, rosettes or scallops. The cake should be eaten soon after assembly, as the filling will eventually start to soften the wafer’s crispness. —Gabrielle Hamilton
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 12 servings
- 1½cups/360 milliliters whole milk
- ½cup/120 milliliters heavy cream
- 1large egg plus 1 large yolk
- ⅓cup/67 grams granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon cornstarch
- 1tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½cup/133 grams smooth, commercial peanut butter (preferably Skippy)
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- 8ounces/225 grams high-quality bittersweet chocolate shards/chips (1⅓ cups)
- 1tablespoon shortening
- Heaping ⅓ cup/60 grams dry-roasted salted peanuts
- 1teaspoon confectioners’ sugar
- 4(8½-inch-round) plain or cocoa wafer sheets
For the Peanut-butter Pastry Cream
For the Cake Layers
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
352 calories; 25 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 31 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 23 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 159 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Bring milk and cream to simmer in a heavy 1-quart saucepan over medium heat.
Step
2
Whisk egg and yolk in a medium bowl. Add sugar, cornstarch and flour, and whisk until very well incorporated and almost fluffy.
Step
3
Whisk hot milk mixture into egg mixture. Return mixture to saucepan, and return heat to medium. Boil 1 minute, whisking constantly, or until thickened. Remove from heat. Whisk peanut butter into hot pastry cream.
Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl, stir in salt, then cover with plastic wrap directly on cream to prevent skin from forming. Chill at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Step
5
Prepare the cake layers: Bring a wide pot of shallow water to a very gentle simmer over low heat.
Step
6
Place ⅔ of chocolate shards plus solid shortening in a clean 10-inch skillet set over the gently simmering water, and melt slowly. Bring the mixture to 110 degrees, and stir well to create a glossy, uniform consistency. Seed in remaining chocolate shards, and stir until completely melted and glossy, and chocolate tempers to 91 degrees. Remove from heat or turn off simmering water (or both).
Step
7
Pulse peanuts in food processor until they’re a coarse meal. Remove, and stir in confectioners’ sugar.
Step
8
Drop one wafer sheet into chocolate, giving it a tiny swirl to make sure the entire surface underneath is coated. Retrieve the wafer with tongs, tweezers or two forks, and hover it over the chocolate until dripping stops, then invert wafer, chocolate face down, on a baker’s rack set over parchment to “drain.” You want a film of chocolate to glaze the waffling, but you don’t want to fill the holes enough to pave them over entirely. Repeat with remaining wafer sheets, tempering the chocolate if needed. While chocolate is still tacky, turn wafers chocolate-side up to finish cooling. (Use an offset spatula if needed to gently release wafer from rack.) Before chocolate sets fully, heavily ring edges of two of the chocolate-dipped wafer sheets by sprinkling the prepared peanut mixture in a 1-inch rim. Allow to cool and harden in a cool, dry place.
Step
9
To assemble: Pipe or spread ⅓ of the peanut-butter pastry cream uniformly among three of the wafer sheets (on the chocolate-filmed side to prevent sogginess later), reserving one of the peanut-edged sheets as the topper.
Step
10
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Step
11
When ready to serve, stack the sheets chocolate-side up, using the peanut-crusted sheet on the bottom, the other two plain sheets in between, and top with the last peanut-crusted chocolate wafer sheet.
Ratings
4
out of 5
483
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Amy M
Looks delicious but where do you get the wafers? I have searched at markets and on line and only find small wafers.
Angie
I agree with Amy—this looks delicious, but I don’t recall having seen wafer sheets in my local stores. It would be nice if there was a good substitute posted along with this recipe, even if it was a thin waffle batter.
Maria
I have never baked with wafer sheets. My 20 second Google search was easy and I found several sources on where to purchase them. So... maybe less dramatic helplessness and more of doing the obvious... Googling it? Seriously - people will find anything to complain about
jill
I usually find wafers in Russian, Eastern European (Parrot Cafe in Queens), and some Asian markets, but yeah, they should have included a link. Maybe a bakery supply house like NY Cake and Bakery has?
Branko
Here's link to wafers I grew up with: https://balkanfresh.com/collections/all-snack/products/oblatne-tort-wafers (I suspect that there are many other on line stores that sell these).
MSN
If you search for Veselka Tort Wafers, you will find online sources for round chocolate wafers that look exactly like the ones in the picture.
Sally R
Does any one else think this would be perfect with matzah ( and substitute matzah meal for the 1 T flour) for Passover?
Minmin
Regarding wafer sheets: while I can purchase them in my neighborhood easily, a quick internet search revealed they are readily available on line, and even at Western Beef. A lot of recipes using tort wafers are Eastern European, so if you have a Polish deli or similar, you might just find them.
Kristin D.
I was able to find wafer sheets online at Walmart, oddly enough. But I’m wondering how easy it will be to store four separate layers in the refrigerator until ready to assemble; sometimes these recipes can really challenge the home cook on issues of space management. But I do want to try this; it sounds delicious and intriguing.
Donna Gay
How do you serve it? It seems like it wouldn’t hold together well when sliced.
SHNYC
I easily found plain wafer sheets on Amazon.
KellyC
Try stroopwafel.
TW
Wafer sheets are found at Eastern European grocers or purchased online. I remember seeing them and not knowing what to do with them when I shopped at one in the Chicago area. Now that I do with them, I'll have to order online.
Kirsty
Looks like you can get the wafers on Amazon
mxwing
I'd never heard of wafer sheets either, but I had zero trouble finding them online.
BajjyMD
Has anyone tried putting chocolate on both sides of the wafer to offset the sogginess?
Michellio
I just made this for my son’s 16th bday yesterday. It is delicious. I don’t see a way to make the wafers not get soggy in or out of the fridge, but it made the cake sliceable. Everyone loved it. It was quite a bit of work-I took others’ advice and painted the chocolate on the wafers—but the end result was really pretty and the cream was delicious. I think an espresso or strawberry pastry cream may have made this even better. The peanut butter is a little subtle but it still comes through.
Marilyn
Is the sieving really necessary? Why? I just read Nicole's note, helpful, after I already ordered the wafers from Amazon! Anyone enjoy the finished product? Good to know I can substitute butter for shortening and brush on the chocolate. It looks beautiful & also appreciate the low sugar as I'm serving it with Easter chocolates.
Nancy
The amount of chocolate called for in my 10 inch pan was not adequate for dipping. My disks (Amazon) were very delicate, would have been difficult to remove w/out breaking so I took a previous suggestion to paint w/a silicon brush. I thought the peanut butter pastry cream lacked flavor and as w/others, the disks never had a chance to be crisp. I put it together, refrigerated it for 10 minutes then cut. Awkward to eat and a disappointment but it was a fun try.
iancas
Why "kosher" salt?
joan Klosterman
I found the wafer sheets easily. Here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/pack-Tort-Wafers-Chocolate-each/dp/B07HPCZ5GT
Sarah
Made this, was good, easier than I thought. Next time will try with hazelnut butter and crushed hazelnuts. I used 12 oz chocolate for dipping the wafer layers. 8 oz wouldn't have been enough. Hardly any drained off.
Judy M
I made this. The peanut butter cream was delicious. The wafers got soggy very quickly. The wafers had chocolate on one side and moist peanut butter cream on the other, so really, there was no possibility of crispness. A recipe designed to disappoint.
Judy M
I made this, and the peanut butter custard was delicious. But the wafers lost their crispness a mere 30 minutes in.
Nicole Fitzhugh
1. Bought wafers on Amazon2. Substituted butter for the shortening on a rec from another note3. Dipping the wafers in the chocolate didn't work, but brushing the choc on with a silicone brush did.4. The pastry cream didn't set the first time. Added another 1/2 C peanut butter and reboiled with a 1T cornstarch/2T water slurry, thickened nicely5. Sliced cleanly out of the fridge but not as it warmed up6. After all that: not a hit. I didn't like the wafers, LOL. Won't make again.
Barbara H.
Has anyone tried this with freshly-ground, unsweetened peanut butter? If so, how did it turn out?
J
Amazon has several brands of wafers suitable for this recipe. SEARCH "Tort Wafers THICK for tort cakes, 150g, 5 sheets (3pack) Total 450g 15 sheetst" for one of them.
J
For those of you familiar with the Norwegian rolled up cookie called Krumkake made on a special griddle that cooks both sides at one & creates a design on both side of the 6" approx. cookie. Normally, the hot cookie is rolled into a cone that is very crisp when cooled. For this recipe, it would be appropriate to let it cool in the flat state, right from the griddle. The flavor is fantastic. Recipes abound on the Internet & the griddle is required, tho' I've never tried it on a flat griddle.
Robin K
I found the torte wafers at our local international grocery store in Charlotte, NC. They cost around $2 to $3 for a pack of 9 (plain) compared to $15-$18 on Amazon.
Matthew
Has anyone to share how the slicing process went? Would it help to stack them and chill versus as spelt out in the recipe to wait till before eating? My layers are on the fridge now so: wish me luck!
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