Bliss In A Flourless Chocolate Cake

I don’t bake much, because baking is science. You actually have to get it right, or you can wind up with hockey pucks or wallpaper paste. Cooking is pure passion, but baking is ratios, rationality, caution and precision. I am none of those things. But I will do anything for good chocolate. And this is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. And it is SUPER easy. It also happens to be gluten-free, which is a bonus for those with gluten sensitivities – and those of us who don’t want anything to get between our chocolate and us.

I don’t know where I got this recipe, but I’ve been using it for years, with some variations here and there. I generally use my Cuisinart, but have done it with a plain old whisk and double boiler as well, so use what you’ve got.

I promise, this is easy, and seriously impressive. A 10-inch cake will serve 15 people easily, it is that rich. And that’s coming from someone who will eat chocolate 8 meals a day, without sugar, and secretly wants to be buried in chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 16 oz. Dark Chocolate of your choice. NOT milk chocolate.

2. 1 cup light brown sugar, packed

3. 1/2 cup granulated white sugar

4. 3/4 cup HOT espresso (I have also used Port, Red Wine, Cherry Juice…..)

5. 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

6. 2 tablespoons unsweetened coco powder

7. 8 large eggs, at room temperature

8. 1 tablespoon bourbon or vanilla, or some other flavor kicker…..

MAKE IT:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Prepare a 10-inch springform pan by rubbing butter all over it (yum!) and coating it with coco powder. (Double yum!)

3. Break up the chocolate into small pieces  – if you use a big knife, it’ll make shavings, which are perfect. Put the chocolate in your Cuisinart and pulse until it’s in small bits. Add the sugar. Pulse until it’s all blended and consistent, like sand.

4. Pour the hot liquid slowly into the Cuisinart while you’re pulsing, and it will all blend and melt together. (If you don’t have a Cuisinart type thing, you can do all of the above in a double boiler on the stove, no problem.)

5. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix until it is creamy and fully blended. You do want the butter to be melted and blended in, or else you get gooey butter pockets in the finished cake. Not, mind you, that there’s anything wrong with that. Personally, I think they’re fine, but if you’re more anal than me, you might not.

1. Pour your batter into the pan and bake for 55 – 70 minutes. You know it’s done when the top is all crackly looking, and a tooth pick comes out clean – or with one or two random crumbs that are not liquidy.

Cool the cake for a few hours before trying to do anything with it. It will collapse down, which is what makes it so ridiculously rich and dense.

TOP THAT! You want to put something on top of it, it is really so dense that your taste buds need a break.

The cake pictured here is working some maraschino cherries. They are handmade, by me, with cherries from my tree. But any nice jarred cherries would do. I put 1 T of the canning liqueur into the batter. Then I dumped the remaining liquid (1 Cup) into a saucepan with ½ Cup of sugar. Cooked it down for a bit, then threw in ½ stick of butter. Chopped up the cherries and put them, along with the room temperature liquid, on top of the cooled cake. HOLY SHIT!

But you could do berries and whipped cream. Caramel….  Anything!

ENJOY!

#flourlesschocolatecake #food #Recipe