After every few recipes done with fresh seasonal fruits or veggies, it gets time to bake something with chocolate. And this time, some serious chocolate business happened at The White Ramekins. I love to bake with chocolate, but either I prefer the ever so mellowed white chocolate paired against fresh berries or I go the other extreme of liking the darkest and the meanest of couverture I can get my hands on. There is no mid way happening for me at least when it comes to chocolate. So, I got few very good dark chocolates from my grocery shopping last weekend and along came this gluten free amaranth flour too. I have never tried such alternate flours in baking before. Although, I have gone to nut meals like almonds or hazelnuts to the maximum when it comes to gluten free baking. I always assumed it to be more courageous to bake with alternate flours. But you know, there are some good friends around me, who have completely foregone the refined flour from their baking, or wheat altogether for that matter. So, getting inspired from my two sweet friends Deeba and Sangeeta, I too thought of trying my hands on it. And I have come to known from my trial and errors, that you can easily replace away the refined flour with wholewheat flour, when some dark chocolate is involved. So, going by that faith, I tried to take my chances on this lovely gluten free amaranth flour. Amaranth flour/seeds are high in amino acids, vitamins and minerals and has got many health benefits. It has got a nice nutty flavor which makes it a perfect combination to go along with something chocolate. And I can vouch for it totally, after I made this gluten free chocolate beetroot amaranth cake. Wow, so much of goodness in one single cake! And not to forget, if you use some high quality dark chocolate, trust me it will satiate all your chocolate cravings in one single bite. And all those amazing ingredients will never fail you while it comes to impressing your friends and family with this lovely chocolate cake.
- For the cake
- 300 gm beetroot, peeled, cut in 3 cm pieces
- 350 gm dark chocolate (70 % cocoa), chopped
- 150 gm butter, chopped
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 gm firmly packed brown sugar
- 100 gm amaranth flour
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- For the chocolate ganache
- 100 gm dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
- 100 ml low fat cream
- Cook beetroot in a small saucepan of boiling water for 30 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving 2 tbsp of the cooking liquid. Process beetroot and reserved liquid until smooth. You should have 1 cup beetroot puree.
- Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Grease 9 inch spring form cake pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
- Stir chocolate and butter for cake in a small bowl over a double boiler until melted and smooth.
- Whisk egg, vanilla, sugar and amaranth flour in large bowl until combined. Whisk in chocolate mixture and beetroot puree. Pour batter into pan. Cover with foil.
- Bake cake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until cooked around the edge with a slight wobble in the center. Lift the foil to release steam. Refrigerate cake for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- For chocolate ganache, heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat for a couple of minutes, preventing it from boiling. Mix the chopped chocolate into the heated cream and let rest for 10 minutes. Stir with a spoon to mix the cream and melted chocolate thoroughly.
- Spread the chocolate ganache over cooled cake and dust with cocoa powder.
