One of my favourite nuts to have with chocolate is scorched almond. I had been craving for something almondey for a bit and since our twingroup catch up was coming up that was my perfect excuse to bake a cake. The mother's that come with their beautiful children are worth all the effort and time I can give for our fortnightly playgroups. Love em all to bits.This recipe calls for roasting the almonds for 5-10 minutes, but I roasted mine for about 15-20 minutes until it went pass golden to brown, just on the verge of dark. I love the roasty toasty nuts breaking up the rich cake so it's up to you how far you take your nuts.
There are a gazzilion versions of flourless chocolate cakes but this recipe I love because it has a very high egg content which just takes the cake from airey to fudgey but not so heavy. The original is a gold old trusted taste.com.au recipe so you know it'll work and just be delish. This is my version, hope you like it.
Flourless Chocolate Almond cake
150g almonds (I used a mix of slivered and flake for the different texture)
125g butter, chopped
1 massive tablespoon instant coffee diluted in 3 tablespoons hot water
220g dark chocolate, broken to pieces
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
5 large eggs separated
cream, vanilla bean paste and strawberry for serving
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a springform cake pan. I used a 23cm round.
2. Roast the almonds for 5-10 minutes if you want just toasty and golden or 15-20 minutes if you want slightly scorched and intensely nutty.
3. In a microwave safe jug add butter, chocolate and coffee mixture. Heat in microwave for 2-3 minutes on medium high power but stir after each minute.
4. Once mixture is melted, smooth and glossy sift in the cocoa powder. Stir through and then add 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks and nuts. Mix that well making sure sugar is well stired and not clumpy. Transfer to bigger mixing bowl (unless your bowl is already a big one).
5. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks and then add the remaining sugar a little at a time. You want the meringue to be stiff. Then fold into chocolate mixture and mix well. (but try not to knock all the air out of the egg whites)
6. Bake for approx 40 minutes. Test with skewer, you want to see moist bits on skewer. If the skewer is completely covered in batter it's not cooked enough, if skewer is completely clean then cake might be too dry.
7. Cool cake before removing pan. You'll see a lovely crunchy shell over top of cake, almost macaron like in texture, try not to peel it off and eat (I failed).
8. I whipped cream and vanilla paste to serve with cake along with some luscious strawberrys to cut into the rich cake. Cake is also lovely when zapped in microwave for 15 seconds as it makes the middle fudgier and warm.
