Flourless Chocolate Almond Torte
| Total time: | 50 mins |
| Prep time: | 20 mins |
| Cook time: | 30 mins |
This Flourless Chocolate Almond Torte is chocolatey without being overly sweet with a texture closer to a mousse than a cake.
Use organic ingredients whenever possible. This includes organic butter, cocoa powder, almonds, sugar and eggs.
With all recipes, read the ingredients and instructions thoroughly before beginning.
Due to the large size of raw sugar crystals, they typically don’t ‘melt’ into batters easily. By processing the raw sugar crystals in a food processor with the metal blade you can make the crystals into a finer texture similar to regular white, table sugar.
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons unsalted butter plus more for buttering pan (approximately 1 teaspoon)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup blanched almonds
- ½ cup raw sugar processed with metal blade of food processor until fine in texture
- 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate
- 5 egg whites, at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ cup fat-free sour cream
- 3 teaspoons powdered stevia
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon toasted slivered almonds (optional)
- Mixed Berry Couli (optional) see recipe
- Powdered sugar (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF
- Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9″ springform pan with butter (about one teaspoon). Sift cocoa powder into buttered pan. Tap and rotate the pan to cover the bottom and sides with cocoa powder. When finished, gently shake the pan to try to evenly distribute the remaining cocoa powder on the bottom of the pan.
- Using the metal blade on your food processor, combine the blanched almonds and just 2 tablespoons of finely processed sugar. Pulse the processor until the ingredients are very finely ground.
- Place the chocolate and 4 teaspoons of butter into a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and microwave for 30 seconds. Let it sit in the microwave for another 30 seconds before stirring. Continue to microwave for 30 seconds, let stand for 30 seconds and stir until the chocolate and butter are fully melted and combined (usually 3 cycles of 30 seconds at most). Don’t overdo the cooking as chocolate can easily burn.
- Separate your room temperature eggs putting the whites into a large, clean mixing bowl. Retain 2 yolks in a separate, large bowl.
- Add the salt to the egg whites and with beater attachment, beat the whites on high speed until foamy. Gradually add just 2 tablespoons of finely processed sugar to the egg whites and continue beating in high speed until the point where you can hold the beater upside down and the egg whites are glossy and remain in a peak without falling.
- In the large bowl with the egg yolks, combine the almond/sugar mixture, sour cream, sugar substitute, vanilla extract, almond extract and only ¼ cup of sugar. Stir in the chocolate mixture until thoroughly blended.
- Take a large spoonful of the egg white mixture and stir it into the chocolate mixture – this will lighten the batter. Next, fold in the remaining egg whites until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into your prepared springform pan and smooth the top out.
- Bake for 30 minutes on the center rack of the oven. The torte is finished baking when the surface looks dry and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few crumbs. (Note: If you are using a dark springform pan check for doneness at 25 minutes as these pans tend to bake faster, however ovens will vary in temperature so keep on eye on the torte if you need to leave it in for a longer cooking time).
- Place pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. You will notice that the cake will fall, this is normal. Run a sharp knife along the inside of the pan side to loosen the torte from the edges. Remove the pan side. Sprinkle with toasted slivered almonds or berry couli or simply dust with powdered sugar for serving.
Reviews
Great alternative
I made this for myself for a birthday party, and even though I kept it refrigerated, it was still tasty. I replaced the butter with coconut oil and used granulated stevia in place of the raw sugar. This is a perfect treat to eat in place of normal cake, and thus I have had a slice every day since I baked it.
