Torte report

Hi, it's Nettle, here for a guest appearance! This weekend, I decided to make a flourless chocolate torte. Since wheat flour and I aren't friends, it makes sense to learn to make a cake-like dessert that doesn't scream "special diet food!" I started here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateAlmondTorte.html , with a promising-looking recipe, but of course I'm not actually capable of following a recipe. I use recipes as general inspirational guide but for some reason I can't actually do as I'm told. Here's what I actually did:

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup hazelnut meal

1/2 cup chocolate chips

5 tbsps butter

A few big scoops of mascarpone (this is optional)

Melt butter and chocolate together in a double boiler. Beat 1/4 cup sugar into egg yolks and add almond meal and melted chocolate and butter. Set aside. In another bowl, whip the other 1/4 sugar with egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter mixture. Pour into pie pan. Dab with mascarpone and swirl in using a sharp knife.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Cool before serving.

I used hazelnuts instead of almonds because I found that I had just enough hazelnuts on hand for this, and it seemed like a good opportunity to use them up. They have a stronger flavor than almonds - I think this would work just fine with almonds as well, though the taste would be different of course. It reminds me of a Nutella brownie, both in flavor and texture. As usual with nut meal baked goods, it lacks some of the structural integrity you'd get with a grain-based flour and has a slightly mealy texture, but it still holds together well enough to slice and lift out of the pan in neat triangles. It might be better done in a cake or tart pan, but all I had available was a pie plate.

Next time I'm going to try more chocolate - I feel like the hazelnut flavor is a little overwhelming to the chocolate, which is a surprise. I thought it would be the other way around. I think more chocolate would also make it a little denser and gooier, which would be a good thing. The mascarpone was a nice touch but not at all necessary. and it really cries out for some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on top. So, a mostly successful experiment! If anyone else tries this or some variation on it, please let me know what you did and how it came out.