A flourless cake with dark, rich flavours, which looks and tastes like it has taken a lot more effort to produce than using a blender.
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) butter • 2 tablespoons espresso or strong
- instant coffee
- 100 g (3½ oz) dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa),
- broken into pieces
- 200 g (7 oz/1½ cups) toasted hazelnuts
- 150 g (5 oz/¾ cup) muscovado sugar
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F/Gas 4). Butter and flour a 20 cm (8 in) springform cake tin, lining the base with baking paper. Melt the butter with the espresso in a saucepan or microwave, and put the chocolate into the hot butter coffee mixture to melt for 2 minutes before stirring to a smooth paste. Leave to cool briefly.
- Grind the hazelnuts to a fine powder using the flat milling blade of your blender.
- Add the sugar, cocoa powder and eggs to the ground hazelnuts and change to the four-pronged extraction blade. Mix until smooth.
- Once the chocolate–coffee mix has cooled enough to use (it must be below 60°C/140°F or it will scramble the eggs when you introduce it to the blender!), tip it into the cup of your blender to combine with the sugar, nuts and eggs, blitzing in short pulses.
- Turn out into the prepared tin, smooth the top and bake for 50 minutes, or until the cake has set in the centre and is beginning to come away from the sides.
