Flourless chestnut and chocolate cake
When it comes to flourless cakes I get worried as most of the recipes I’ve tried have been a disaster. So gluten-free baking for me is about using ground almonds, polenta or some sort of no-grain flour mixture. I came across this flourless chestnut cake recipe in one of the supermarkets’ magazine and decided to give it a try, thinking that the chestnuts and hazelnuts would provide the necessary binding agents in the batter. And I’m glad I did! It’s delicious, moist and my version is dairy-free too! So it’s perfect for dinner parties, afternoon teas or as a gift.
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease a deep 20 cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
- Simmer the chestnuts in the milk for 15 minutes then drain and let it cool.
- Whizz the chocolate in a food processor until you get a coarse mixture. Set aside.
- Drain the chestnuts then put them in the food processor together with the hazelnuts and whizz to a rough paste. Seet aside.
- Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat them until creamy. Blend in the egg yolks, one at a time. Mix in the brandy and orange zest the fold in the chocolate and the chestnut mixture.
- In another bowl whisk the egg whites until you get stiff peaks. Fold it gently into the other mixture, first a couple of spoonful, followed by the rest.
- Transfer the batter into the cake tin, making sure the surface is levelled.
- Bake for 30 minutes until it’s risen nicely and properly cooked through.
- Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the tin, then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack.
- When the cake is completely cool, dust it with some icing sugar.
- Serve it with custard, ice-cream, chocolate sauce, crème fraîche etc.