This flourless chocolate cake by Alice Medrich (Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts) is another great use for all those egg whites leftover from baking panettone or colomba de pasqua this time of year. Unlike other flourless chocolate cakes, this one is lots of tiny bits of chocolate and walnuts suspended in a meringue. It's not a looker, but if you appreciate melty, gooey chocolate you'll be happy to look past that. Use a chocolate you really like since that will be the star.
100 gm walnut pieces (1 cup)
125 gm sugar (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons)
250 gm 70-72% chocolate, coarsely chopped (9 oz)
Finely grated zest of 1 med orange (optional)
1/8 tsp salt
240 gm egg whites (1 cup)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Lightly sweetened whipped cream
Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and spray or grease a 9-inch springform.
Pulse walnuts with 1 Tbl of the sugar in FP until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl and wipe the oil out of the processor bowl. Next pulse the chocolate with another Tbl of the sugar until it ranges in size from coarse meal to 1/4-inch bits. Transfer to bowl with nuts, along with orange zest if using, and salt. Stir to combine and set aside.
In a large, clean bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar at medium speed until creamy white and soft peaks form when beaters are lifted. On medium-high, gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until glossy and stiff but not dry.
Pour half the chocolate mixture over the egg whites and gently fold in with a large spatula until nearly incorporated. Repeat with remaining chocolate, folding just until evenly incorporated.
Transfer batter to prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden and it springs back when gently pressed. Cool on rack. Slide a knife or metal spatula around the sides to release before removing the ring.
Serve with whipped cream, preferably before the chocolate has time to set up.
Make Ahead Tips
The torte can be kept at room temp for up to 3 days, or frozen up to 3 months
- Debra Wink's Blog
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looks delicious, Debra! Can walnuts be substituted with cashews?
I like the side by side metric and volumetric measurements
Jay
Use any nut you like to pair with dark chocolate. What nut wouldn't be good? Just keep in mind that the oilier they are the more they might deflate your meringue.
The recipe was published with the volume measurements first and weight in ounces in parentheses. But who here uses ounces? The KitchenCalc fixed that, but I rounded everything to the nearest 5 gm and guessed on the egg whites because it's not that critical :)
dw
Sacher torte came across my mind for no reason! 😆
Oh I just remember, king arthur has good coconut white cake recipe, but I feel coconut milk doesn't go well with butter, so I use vegetable oil, and I whip the egg whites and sugar into soft peak meringue before folding it into the batter. I also added rum
Jay
This looks and sounds delicious. This would be a good Passover dessert as well.
Thanks for sharing.
Ian
I hadn't thought of that, and it's gluten-free as well. Ticks a lot of boxes :)
Hope you give it a try,
dw
I am there! Checking amounts of egg whites on hand…..check!
It sounds too easy to be true, but looks delicious and so I am making it. Thank you so much!!
Sue
It is delicious. And the last time I made it (the one in the above picture), I only had 6 oz of chocolate and it still turned out great. Part of it was whatever 70% I had left, and the balance was equal parts 55% and 85% because I didn't want to make a trip to the store. I didn't even bother melting to combine, just threw them all in the FP together. Very forgiving.
Be prepared for shrinkage toward the end of baking and during cooling. Mine has always done that, just like in the photo that was published with the recipe. So don't be distressed :)
Duplicate --- having so much trouble with internet today.
Just looking at it, I wonder whether the addition of some corn starch would help with the shrinkage, and produce a more cookie-like result. Either way I am sure it would be good. Thank you again for posting this!
You could fix the shrinkage by adding a starch, but you might lose the marshmallowy character. How 'bout I reframe it as "rustic charm?"
There was a recipe in Bon Appetit magazine years ago called Three-Ginger Gingerbread. It tasted amazing, just the flavor I had been looking for. But it always sunk in the middle just like this torte. In the recipe notes it said this happens, but I wanted to see if I could fix it without changing what I loved most about it, the flavor.
When I analyzed the formula against troubleshooting guides, it clearly had too much sugar for the structure of the cake and so I removed some. The cake turned out gorgeous. Picture perfect in shape and crumb. But it no longer had the flavor and density/moisture that I appreciated it for. It was just an ordinary gingerbread.
Whipped cream turned out to be the answer for me :)
Hi Debra,
I have a question, fermentation related. Hope you wouldn't mind me going off topic
I've read somewhere that eventhough lactose fermenting yeast is not common, LAB could break down lactose (and all products happen to be hexoses).
In the case of sweet starter, I would like to hear your thoughts about what differences to be expected if replacing sugar with lactose rich substance (both positives and negatives), such as powdered whey
I've heard that the lactose content in powdered whey is above 70%
Best regards,
Jay
edit:
I just fed my starter again 8:4:2:1 bran:water:skim milk powder:sugar, it ferments faster than when it was 9:4:2 bran:water:sugar
But the starter being fed with milk powder is being treated like royalty. You should call it Ching Karles.
The thing is Jon, Cariah Marey is a hardline feminist, and she just put me at gunpoint to legally change her name to Vueen Qictoria 😆
Jay
Sorry Jay,
The only way to find out what differences there will be is to try it and see.
Glucose or galactose? I'm guessing LAB prefer the glucose. Will they use the galactose too? Will yeast thrive on whatever is leftover in the absence of added sugar?
You're going to have to tell me :)
dw
What a lovely bake, thanks for the idea! Bookmarked and on my to bake list.
-Jon
Happy Baking!
dw
Fabulous Debra, just the thing to use up those egg whites I now have in my fridge after making a panettone and panettini. I'll save this to make, thank you.
Happy Easter
Benny
And me too --- I baked a colomba yesterday and have a cup of whites leftover. Perfect ... as long as I have everything else I need without making a trip to the store.
Enjoy and have a Happy Easter as well :)
dw
Thanks for providing, Debra - I made it! I made a half quantity version and used a 7" tin. It was very tasty, despite the sinking middle syndrome and went very well with some macerated strawberries - halved and soaked in creme de cassis, light muscovado sugar, fresh mint and balsamic vinegar. Plus some creme fraiche to serve.
Lance
What a beautiful toasty color. So happy you gave it a go. And your strawberries sound simply divine :)
Thank you for the 7" half-batch tip; I have a 7" springform pan that hardly ever gets used.
Enjoy the leftovers,
dw