Italian Flourless Chocolate Cake

- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 7tablespoons/100 grams unsalted butter softened, plus more for pan
- ½cup/60 grams confectioners’ sugar, sifted, plus more for dusting
- 4ounces/113 grams 70 percent “top quality” dark chocolate
- 2extra-large eggs, separated
- 2tablespoons/20 grams potato starch
- 3½tablespoons/40 grams superfine sugar
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, using a mixer or by hand, beat the 7 tablespoons butter with the confectioners’ sugar until smooth and creamy. Melt chocolate in a pan on top of stove. Pour warm chocolate over the butter and sugar mixture and beat until smooth. Whisk in egg yolks one at a time. Stir in potato starch.
- Step 3
In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in superfine sugar and continue beating until firm peaks develop. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.
- Step 4
Scrape the batter out of the bowl, and spread it in the pan. Bake for 18 minutes. Cake will rise and top will look dry and a little crackly. Remove pan from oven, place on a rack and allow to cool completely, about 2 hours. Cake will sink a bit.
- Step 5
Unmold cake, peel off parchment, then invert onto a serving dish so the crackly surface is on top. Generously sift confectioners’ sugar over the top, then serve.
Private Notes
Comments
After reading several comments here and given only large eggs on hand, I adjusted the recipe: 5 oz chocolate, 3 eggs, plus a tablespoon of almond paste creamed into the butter/sugar, in a springform pan, baked for 21 minutes until small cracks were visible in the top, cooled for 2 hours+. Although the top edges cracked off when I plated the cake, the dusting of powder sugar spiffed it up for presentation. The cake was moist and easy to cut/serve with a dollop of creme fraische.
I used arrowroot instead of the potato starch and it turned out great. I do need to work on my egg-separating skills, though.
For those having trouble finding potato starch - if you make this in early Spring you will find lots of potato starch in the Passover section of your regular supermarket. Potato starch is used in many Passover recipes, since they cannot have regular flour.
18 minutes at 350 was not enough to bake. Oh how I wish I had tested with a toothpick. My mistake. But be warned. Make sure you test for doneness. I'll try again.
I need more servings. Is it safe to double the recipe? If I bake it in a 10” spring form pan? But then wondering how long to bake it? Or is all of this too risky and is it better to bake in two separate pans of the designated size?
Had no potato starch, used equal weight of flour, came out great except a bit wet in the center after 18 minutes—Maybe shiny pan? I would would add a couple of minutes to the baking tim. Utterly delicious with an amazing texture.