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Flourless Chocolate Cake

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A super-easy, rich, delicious (gluten-free), and impressive dessert for any occasion.

This is a slightly edited version of the recipe published by Gourmet Magazine in 1997

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces fine quality bittersweet chocolate

  • 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter (I have heard margarine works here too), plus more for greasing the pan

  • ¾ cup of sugar

  • 3 large eggs

  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus extra for dusting, if desired)

  • Powdered sugar for dusting, if desired. Even better than powdered sugar (which you need to shake on after the cake has cooled), is a NON-MELTING powdered sugar from King Arthur. One bag may last you forever, and you can dust anything, even hot from the oven, without it melting. Click here to learn more).

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom of pan with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper on the top. If opting for another shape, just butter the pan very well.

  2. Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. (I actually put the chopped chocolate and butter – cut up into pieces – into a glass bowl and microwave them on high for 2 minutes and then stir. Sometimes it needs a little more time, but that usually works well). Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into the mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift ½ cup of cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined.

  3. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in middle of oven for 25 minutes or until you see that the top has fully set (often with some small cracking along the edges). I do not recommend using the toothpick test for doneness as a little bit of fudginess in the middle is not a bad thing -- this is a cake that is best slightly underdone vs overdone.

  4. Invert cake onto serving plate to cool as soon as you take it out of the oven.

  5. Dust cake with additional cocoa powder or powdered sugar (I usually dust it with powdered sugar over a doily) and serve with fruit or sorbet or coulee or whipped cream, if desired. If you will be dusting the cake, I usually find that the later you do it the better – if you do it while the cake is still warm, it tends to just be absorbed and you can’t see it (and it doesn’t hide any of the flaws you may have). OR, I have recently discovered non-melting powdered sugar which is perfect to dust a warm cake with!


Cake keeps after being cooled completely, in airtight container, one week (supposedly). Also, this cake can be frozen and defrosted – and it is still delicious!

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