Recipe: Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
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Pastry Chef Rachel Firestone's flourless chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and garnished with a strawberry.
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Pastry Chef Rachel Firestone of Sonoma Grille demonstrated this as a kosher-for-Passover recipe. She gets many of her ingredients at Murray Avenue Kosher.
She notes: Whipped cream and berries are wonderful accompaniments to this dish. For plating, place cake slightly off-center on the dessert plate.
Spoon a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top of each cake and garnish the plate with berries of your choice. Teflon-coated muffin tins may also be used instead of ramekins.
To prepare the muffin tins for baking, spray with nonstick cooking spray, and fill each tin 3/4 of the way to the top.
This recipe can be doubled or halved and made in advance and kept in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. It freezes well.
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted kosher-for-Passover margarine or butter, cut into small pieces, plus more to grease ramekins
- 1 cup dark, good quality, cocoa powder, such as Droste, plus some for dusting
- 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts or chopped hazelnuts (ground hazelnuts work best if you are making ramekin-sized cakes)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Frangelico (optional)
- 6 eggs
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Grease ramekins with margarine or butter and dust with cocoa powder. Place ramekins on a sheet tray.
Whisk together hazelnuts, cocoa powder and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.
Place chocolate and margarine--butter in a medium-size glass or metal bowl and place over a saucepan with simmering water.
Stir as it melts. (If you have a double boiler, you can use that to melt the chocolate and margarine.) Add vanilla and Frangelico.
Pour into cocoa powder mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine.
Beat eggs until frothy. Fold into cocoa/chocolate mixture.
Using a standard ice cream scoop, scoop mixture into ramekins, using one full scoop per ramekin. You may also use 1/4-cup measuring cup to scoop out batter.
Bake for 35 minutes, rotating the sheet tray after 17 minutes. The cakes are done when the tops are shiny and slightly coming apart from the edges of the ramekin.
Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and unmold.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 12.
-- Rachel Firestone
Mandelbread
Note: This recipe was demonstrated by Chef Firestone at a previous "Not Your Bubbe's Cooking" and is not kosher for Passover.
Fresh mandelbread can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week. Almonds and cranberries may be substituted for other nuts, fruit, or chocolate chips. Mandelbread can be frozen after the first and/or second bakes. -- Rachel Firestone
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted margarine or butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/8 cup orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons amaretto
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup toasted almonds (slivered or whole)
- 1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
- Cinnamon and sugar to dust
Cream together butter, sugar, and orange zest on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer, until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla extract and amaretto. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each egg is incorporated into the batter. Transfer to a large bowl.
Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to batter and stir with a spatula to incorporate all the flour. Stir in nuts and cranberries. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar onto work surface and divide dough into 3 equal-sized portions. Roll out each portion in sugar until it resembles a log about 2 inches in diameter.
Place onto a silicon or parchment-lined baking sheet and dust with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake mandelbread for 30 to 40 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after 15 to 20 minutes. The mandelbread will be golden brown.
Let the mandelbread cool for at least 1 hour and slice each log on the bias using a serrated knife into several 1-inch slices.
Bake slices on silicon- or parchment-lined baking sheets for 15 to 20 minutes.
Makes 40 slices.
-- Rachel Firestone
First Published April 2, 2009 12:00 am
