One of the desserts I made for Easter was a flourless chocolate cake. The idea for this cake came when I asked my friends at Savory Spice Shop if they could get in raw cacao nips, boy did they ever deliver. I had little idea what I wanted to do with the nips, other that just snack on them, but I figured I better use them in some kind of recipe. I started racking my brains of what I could make, and thought back to my time at Johnson and Wales. I had made a few flourless chocolate cakes while in school, but somehow most of my recipes that I worked on are MIA. After searching high and low in the black hole known as our garage, I went to work trying to create one from what I remembered, while adding some new touches. Here is what I ended up with, and while it still needs tweaking, it turned out pretty good for this non baking and pastry culinary girl.
| Flourless Black Onyx Chocolate Cake |
- 2 tbs. Black onyx cocoa powder
- 3/4 c. plus 2 tbs. Unsalted butter, cubed
- 14 oz. Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract, pure Mexican
- 6 lg. eggs, at room temperature, separated
- 6 tbs. Granulated sugar, divided
- 2-3 tsp. Cacao nips
- Preheat oven to 300℉
- Prepare 10″ springform pan by buttering with 2 tbs. softened butter until there is a thin coating on all of the interior. Continue by dusting with the black onyx cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. This process will help to prevent sticking and will also give an extra dose of chocolatey goodness.
- In a double broiler, add and heat the chocolate, butter, salt, and vanilla until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from heat and set aside.
- Whisk egg yolks with sugar until mixture is a thicker pale yellow (ribbon stage). Once the ribbon stage has been achieved fold chocolate into egg yolk mixture.
- In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture until combined.
- Pour into cocoa dusted springform pan, top with cacao nips and bake until center is just set, about 35-40 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool on a rack. You can either remove the ring and slice while it is still slightly warm, or chill in the refrigerator and serve cold.
When I made this for the first time, I slightly over baked it, baking for 45 minutes. I believe that this led to a drier end product than I was looking for. If you find that reducing the time to 35-40 minutes still produces a drier product, I recommend baking the cake in a water bath to help keep some of the moisture.
.We were blessed to have my parents and this newlywed couple join us for Easter dinner-I love how they have become not only close friends, but family over the past couple of years.
by LaBranda
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