Flourless chestnut, rum and chocolate cake recipe

This gorgeously gooey chocolate flourless cake makes an excellent and easy dessert.

Ingredients

Details

  • Cuisine: British
  • Recipe Type: Chocolate
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Preparation Time: 20 mins
  • Cooking Time: 80 mins
  • Serves: 8

Step-by-step

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10.  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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