Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Day 6 of my “12 Days of Baked Goods” series!

Flourless Chocolate CakeA few weeks back, I had the pleasure of lunching at the adorable (and delicious) Choc-O-Pain French Bakery & Café in Hoboken, NJ (see my review for Jersey Bites). While there, I had the chance to sample the decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake that’s made with high-quality chocolate and creates a cake that’s both fudgy and cake-like.

I was able to get the scaled down recipe from the fine folks at Choc-O-Pain and am sharing with you. Note that I upped the chocolate to 6 ounces and it created a more fudgy than cake-like texture, which was also AMAZING. A light dusting of powdered sugar and you’ve got a perfect holiday dessert.

Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • ½ cup pure cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
  2. Butter or coat in cooking spray an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper.
  3. Melt chocolate and butter in a large bowl over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, risking scorching.
  4. In a separate larger bowl, whisk together sugar, salt and eggs. When thoroughly incorporated, carefully whisk in cocoa powder until fully incorporated. Pour melted mixture into cocoa, sugar mixture, mix thoroughly.
  5. Fill the cake pan with batter. Bake until center springs back (about 25-30 minutes). Allow to cool.
  6. Dust the cake with the powdered sugar, if using.

Yield: Makes one 8-inch cake and can easily serve 8-10.

Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake

Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate CakeI love a richly-chocolaty cake. This cake doesn’t have fancy frosting or 3 cake layers, it’s simply dense, moist chocolate decadence. Yeah, I know I’m calling it “flourless” when it has a tablespoon of flour in it – what can I say?

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp. butter, softened
  • 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 1 tsp. granulated sugar
  • 4 Tbsp. butter, cut in a few pieces
  • 3 ½ ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. powdered sugar
  • ½ cup almond flour*
  • 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

Flourless Chocolate Cake SliceDirections:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
  2. Butter an 8-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and dust with cocoa powder.
  3. In the clean bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the teaspoon of sugar until medium-stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes.
  4. In a medium bowl, microwave the butter and the chocolate for 60 seconds, stirring after 30 seconds. If the chocolate isn’t fully melted after 60 seconds, heat for up to an additional 30 seconds, stirring after 15 seconds.
  5. Using a hand whisk, add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture. Add the ½ cup powdered sugar, the almond flour and the all-purpose flour to the chocolate mixture and whisk to fully combine.
  6. Gently whisk 2 tablespoons of the egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the remaining egg whites into the chocolate – do not over mix as the batter will deflate.
  7. Pour the batter into the tart pan and bake for 16 – 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes then loosen it out of the tart pan. Dust with powdered sugar.

Serves 8.

Notes: Almond flour should be relatively easy to find at your local grocery store, but if not, don’t fret! Here’s an easy way to get ½ cup of almond flour for this recipe: Add 1 cup of whole, unsalted almonds to a small food processor and pulse until the almonds are very finely ground. Push the ground almonds through a fine sieve.