My Mother’s Flourless Chocolate Torte

I can’t get enough of this torte. Mom made it a few weeks ago for the first time, and since then, we have made it twice more. Once we cut it into small bit-sized morsels and snacked on it for the weekend. This past Friday my Mom made it for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday. There are three ingredients: chocolate, butter, and eggs. That’s it, that’s all. And really, what else do you need?

Ingredients:

1 pound semi sweet chocolate (we don’t mess around – that’s 16 ounces of goodness)

½ pound butter

6 large eggs

Start by cracking the eggs into your mixing bowl and beat them at medium speed for 1 minute, and then at high speed for 9 minutes (this obviously works better in a mixer since your arm will be very tired if you try to beat these by hand). 

While the eggs are being whipped into a frenzy, grease a 9” springform pan with butter, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Then crack the chocolate into pieces, place it into a glass measuring cup, and melt it by cooking it in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. If you’re a purist and prefer to melt chocolate in a double boiler, knock yourself out.

Remove the melted chocolate from the microwave and cut the ½ pound of butter into large chunks. Stir it into the chocolate while the chocolate is still warm. Let the mixture cool.

Once cool, fold the chocolate mixture into the beaten eggs in small increments. 

Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake it for 20 to 30 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. After the first 5 minutes, place a sheet of tin foil on top of the pan to prevent burning. If you have a hot oven, you can cook it at 375 degrees F for closer to 30 minutes. Shake the pan a little when you check for doneness – if it jiggles in the centre, pop it back in for a few more minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack. Let it stand for about 10 minutes. Then use a knife to loosen the cake around the edges anywhere it has stuck. Undo the springform pan and lift the bottom out of the round form. Flip the cake onto a wire rack. Remove the bottom of the pan and the piece of parchment (carefully). Let cool then transfer to a pretty plate.

To serve it for my Mother-in-Law’s birthday, I mixed unsweetened cocoa powder with icing sugar and dusted the top of the cake with this mixture (put the mixture in a strainer and tap the side of the strainer while holding it over the cake). 

And to make it more festive, I added raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream.

To make the coulis, just put some raspberries in a food processor with some lemon juice and a tad of sugar and mix it up.

If you like, you can add some ground almonds to the cake (I would say about 1/2 cup), and a tsp of almond extract. This will give it a more dense texture, and a nuttier flavour. You can also beat extra egg whites until stiff peaks form, and fold these into the mixture as well - this will make the cake a bit taller, and will lighten the texture. It's kind of hard to ruin this cake, so have fun experimenting. And eating, of course.