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Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

March 30, 2014 by TheWhiteRamekins

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

Feeling uninspired! Yeah it’s been happening to me for quite some time now. Even exciting work assignments haven’t been able to rev me up. Life seems to be meh! When I look back through the pages of blog, I can’t seem to figure out, what I want to try next. Not sure, what I want. May be a peaceful travel journey, I’ve been longing for. Last time I traveled was to the mountains of Munsiyari in far north of India. It was an amazing trip, I had. But that was almost eight months ago. It’s a break probably, I have been longing for. Anyways leaving my rant behind, let’s talk about the cake.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

I bake cakes quite often, and you would get to know going by the recipe index. But chocolate cake is something which I keep reserved for the times when my six year old niece demands for it. It is for her, you’d see those lovely chocolate cake recipes here on the blog.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

She knows well when to demand for one. She’d call me up on Friday evening, whenever she wants to eat it on the weekend, I am visiting the family. I had this unopened bag of hazelnuts in my pantry from last Christmas shopping, which I hadn’t used.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

And chocolate hazelnut cake it had to be of which the recipe was there in my bookmarks. It calls for dark chocolate, ground hazelnuts, eggs and butter. That means no flour, no gluten. Although, being gluten-free was not the reason behind choosing this recipe.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

It just came out to be an added bonus. The crumb is super moist. It looks more sinful than it actually is! All you have to do is use the best quality dark chocolate. The darker, the better!

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

I iced the cake with a thin layer of chocolate ganache and topped it with some more chocolate curls and toasted hazelnuts, which is completely okay to skip out, if you want. The cake is that good already! All you need is good espresso shot for yourself to go along, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for your kids.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Gluten Free

Ingredients

Cake

200 gm dark chocolate, chopped
125 gm butter, chopped
6 eggs, separated
2/3 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups hazelnut meal

Icing/Topping

100 gm dark chocolate, chopped
100 ml low fat cream
Chocolate curls
Toasted hazelnuts, chopped roughly

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven at 170 degree C. Grease and line a 8 inch springform cake pan with parchment paper and keep aside.
  2. For cake, melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl, on a double boiler. Keep aside and let it cool.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar, until pale and creamy.
  4. Beat in the hazelnut meal.
  5. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and they start to look glossy.
  6. Taking one third of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate and hazelnut mixture to make it lighter. Gently fold the remaining egg whites into the chocolate mixture, making sure not to deflate the batter.
  7. Pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, until skewer inserted into the cake comes out with some crumbs attached to it. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel the parchment paper, once cooled completely.
  8. For icing, heat the cream in a saucepan, until it starts to boil. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream and let stand for 5 minutes, until chocolate has melted. Mix the chocolate gently and thoroughly into the cream.
  9. Pour the icing over the cooled cake and top with chocolate curls and toasted hazelnuts.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: cake, chocolate Tagged With: baking, cake, chocolate, flourless, food, gluten free, hazelnut, recipe

Crackers & Crackers…for Daring Bakers

July 26, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Reeling through the intense madness at office from past two weeks, I somehow managed to complete the part one of my first ever Daring Baker’s challenge, for which I chose to make Graham Crackers. I paired them with homemade marshmallow fluff and Nutella. Kids back at home loved them a lot and I was satisfied that I had won half of the battle.

As last day of completing the challenge was nearing, I started feeling the pressure to finish it, as if the pressure at work wasn’t enough to deal with. And as rolling of crackers was done, it was about freezing the dough in an icebox {read refrigerator here}, which was yet to be taken over. I was desperately looking for ideas through various cook books, news papers, and internet of course, and surprisingly I couldn’t find a single recipe which could bowled me over. And then I resorted to the suggestions, which Dana McFarlane has given as part of the challenge. Out of the icebox cracker recipes, posted in there, I picked up the one with Cheddar and walnuts, which I adapted as per my taste and the ingredients I had at hand.

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

Time was running out and I couldn’t afford to wait for the weekend to come {my regular but favorite time to bake}. So after I came home from work on Monday, I finished the dough part and popped that into fridge to rest for one day and then bake them up next evening. I also made Tzatziki, mixing hung yogurt, dry dill and bits of cucumber, to go along with the cheese crackers. And it summed up as really a great make-ahead party appetizer. Third day morning was time to shoot them up. In the end I felt so relieved that I could live up to taking this challenge midst my busy work schedule. After all this is Daring Baker’s challenge, and it was indeed daring for me.

Graham Crackers {recipe adapted from Martha Stewart}

Ingredients

1 all-purpose flour, plus more for working
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup ground oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100 gm butter
2 tbsp milk
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 tbsp honey

Instructions

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients except sugar in a bowl and set aside.
  2. Beat butter with sugar until pale and fluffy.
  3. Add flour mixture and rest of ingredients to butter and sugar mixture and mix well to make two dough balls.
  4. Wrap them up into cling wrap and let rest in fridge for about 20-30 minutes.
  5. Taking one ball at a time, roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness. Cut the crackers using cookie cutter of your choice.
  6. Line them onto baking sheets and bake in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
  7. Let them cool on a wire rack completely.

Cheddar Hazelnut Rosemary Icebox Crackers {recipe adapted from The American Culinary Institute}

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp bengal gram or chickpea flour
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Instructions

  1. Combine flours, salt, cayenne pepper, rosemary and butter in a food processor until it resembles coarse bread crumbs .
  2. Add cheese, milk and nuts and knead to make a dough ball.
  3. Roll the dough into a cylindrical log, cover with cling wrap and let rest in fridge for at least 24 hours.
  4. Cut the thin slices of around 5 mm thickness and bake them on a baking sheet in a 160 degree Celsius preheated oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.
  5. Let cool on wire rack completely before serving.

Filed Under: cookies Tagged With: cheddar, crackers, daring bakers, graham crackers, hazelnut

Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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