Chocolate Almond Cake (Torta Caprese)
Desserts Italian Gluten-Free Recipes
Gluten-free chocolate cake. It's simple, made with only 5 main ingredients, but very satisfying. On the outside it develops a slightly crumbly crust when cut, but inside it's dense and soft. It's called Torta Caprese, originally from the island of Capri. Like all good cakes, it was created by mistake, when the pastry chef forgot to add flour to the batter. It's a perfect cake to serve with coffee or a glass of milk.
Over the weekend I made 3 Caprese cakes. One of them spilled on the floor right before putting it in the oven - the springform bottom came loose 😊 But the other two were eaten down to the last crumb. After you make it the first time with almonds, you can experiment with other nuts (you can replace half of the almond flour with walnuts or hazelnuts, for example).
Ingredients
3 eggs
150g dark chocolate (50-55% cacao)
150g butter (82%; unsalted)
175g almond flour
120g fine caster sugar
1 tablespoon rum (or cognac; or orange/coffee liqueur)
1/8 teaspoon salt
How to prepare chocolate almond cake (torta caprese)
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Remove from heat, but leave the bowl over the hot water. Add the butter cut into cubes, in 3-4 batches, stirring after each addition until melted.
- Separate the eggs.
- Beat the egg yolks with the sugar using a mixer until you get a pale yellow, voluminous cream and most of the sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes).
- Pour the chocolate and butter mixture along with the rum over the egg yolk cream and stir until the color is homogeneous.
- Add the almond flour in two batches, stirring gently with a whisk just until incorporated.
- Beat the egg whites with salt until stiff peaks form that hold on the whisk. Fold into the batter in three batches, gently folding with the whisk from top to bottom just until incorporated.
- Line the bottom of an 18-20 cm round cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the sides with butter.
- Pour the batter into the pan. It's soft enough to self-level.
- Place the pan in the oven preheated to 170°C and bake for 45-50 minutes (check with a toothpick - it should come out with melted chocolate on it). The top may crack slightly, but that's okay, it will be flipped when serving.
- Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to release it. Flip the cake onto a serving plate and let it cool completely.
