A rich and dense flourless chocolate torte that will knock your socks off! This is perfect for chocolate lovers and would pair well with some fresh fruit!
For Valentine’s Day this year, my husband and I decided to stay at home and hang out with our daughter. We haven’t gone out for this holiday in years. It’s more fun for us to make our own food and enjoy the time spent together doing that.
This year, we let our daughter pick the menu. She’s been on a shrimp scampi kick and suggested a shrimp scampi pasta. While my husband and I both enjoyed the recipe we tried, my daughter said it scored only a 2 out of 10 on her food grading scale. I guess she wasn’t a fan of the garlic sauce and preferred a classic tomato sauce. Once we added some jarred pasta sauce to her dish, she rescored the entree as a 10 out of 10. Go figure.
For dessert, we sifted through some cookbooks and some posts on the internet. I came across a chocolate torte and she thought that it sounded good. So I went off to look for a promising recipe.
And guys, this is the best chocolate torte that I’ve had. It’s rich, dense and super chocolate-y. And it contains no flour so you gluten-free peeps can enjoy this too. I was able to make this several days in advance and keep it in the refrigerator.
I had leftover ganache and added more chocolate chips to it so I could turn it into truffles. Then I garnished the tops of each slice with some truffles for an even richer dessert.
Bon appetit!
Chocolate torte
Ingredients
Torte
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder optional
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Filling
- 1 and 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks or 1 and 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 13 and 3/4″x4″ rectangular tart pan, an 8″ square pan or a 9″ round pan (I actually used a 10″ springform pan). Set aside.
Make the torte
- In a large microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips and butter together until melted. Mix until smooth. Add the sugar, salt and espresso powder if using. Mix well. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated. Finally, fold in the cocoa powder and mix until everything just comes together. Do not over mix.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes. The top should not be jiggly. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan and turn it out onto a wire rack or serving plate and allow to cool completely (I actually let mine cool in the springform pan and just loosened the sides before allowing to cool completely).
Make the filling
- In a large measuring cup, heat up the cream in the microwave until almost boiling. Add the chocolate and allow to sit for about 1 minute before stirring. Keep stirring until the mixture is smooth. Pour about half of it over the cooled torte.
- Transfer the torte to the refrigerator and allow to cool completely.
- You can make chocolate truffles with the remaining ganache – simply add more chocolate chips or chunks (I added about another 1/2 – 3/4 cup) so the mixture is thick like pudding. Allow it to cool in the refrigerator. Then scoop out spoonfuls of chilled ganache and roll into balls. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and keep in the refrigerator.
- Slice the torte and top with the truffles.
Notes