Flourless chestnut, rum and chocolate cake recipe
This gorgeously gooey chocolate flourless cake makes an excellent and easy dessert.
Ingredients
- 300 ml dark rum
- 150 g pitted prunes
- 200 g unsalted butter, roughly chopped, plus extra for greasing
- 200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
- 200 g caster (superfine) sugar
- 200 g chestnut purée
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 1 amount of cocoa powder, for dusting (optional)
- 8 dollops of cold crème fraîche, to serve
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Chocolate
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 80 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
- Place the rum and prunes in a pan and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Butter and line the base of a 20-cm/8-in round loose-bottomed or springform cake tin with baking paper.
- Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Remove the bowl from the pan and set aside to cool a little.
- Place the butter, sugar, chestnut purée, egg yolks, salt and the prunes with their rum in a food processor and blitz until smooth and creamy. Add the melted, cooled chocolate and blitz again until completely combined. Scrape the mixture into a mixing bowl.
- Beat the egg whites in a scrupulously clean bowl with electric beaters or in a stand mixer until stiff but not too firm or dry, otherwise you won’t be able to fold them easily into the chocolate mixture.
- Beat one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen, then gently and gradually fold in the rest – don’t be tempted to beat or you will lose the air.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.
- Bake for 1 hour–1¼ hours: when done, the cake should be dry and firm on top (but not springy, as it will be mousse-like in the centre) and coming away from the edge of the tin.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes; it will shrink a bit, but that is as it should be and will firm up a little as it cools.
- Release from the tin and sit on a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with sifted cocoa – this isn’t essential, but adds a lovely bitter note – and serve with cold crème fraîche.
This recipe is from The Little Chocolate Cookbook by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £10). Photography ©Yuki Sugiura.
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