I‘ve been watching the PBS series “The Great British Baking Show”. Each episode features a “technical challenge” where the bakers are presented a sometimes obscure bread or pastry and a bare bones recipe. Recently, they had the bakers prepare a Schichttorte – a German cake with 20 layers. I wanted to try that. The recipe is linked.
http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/schichttorte/
After translating to American English the British names for various ingredients, I gave it a go yesterday, speaking in my best British accent throughout. Thanks to Marsha L. at Cooking at the Cottage for pointers on ingredients and a lesson on world vanilla prices!
The batter is placed in a springform pan in thin layers and each layer is cooked under the “grill” (broiler). For each layer, the time under heat is adjusted to produce alternating light and dark layers. The GBBS judges were looking for the 20 layers (they counted) and the light/dark layer mix.
My attempt is shown below. I think I got all 20 layers – I lost count during the process, but counting after cutting a slice confirms. Broiler heat wasn’t high enough for the first several layers, so the dark layers didn’t happen near the base. The layering became more apparent after cranking up the heat. I wasn’t thrilled with the chocolate glaze coverage – gotta work on that. Shape and height were good. Some of the GBBS contestants had lopsided versions.