As chocolate hazelnut wafts from the kitchen
Friday May 25th 2012, 10:32 pm
Filed under: Family,Food

I went off to buy some birdseed today, and while I was in Los Gatos, out of curiosity I decided to swing by their Trader Joe’s on my way back to the freeway. Never been there.

As the clerk was checking me out I mentioned to him that after you toast those raw hazelnuts you want to rub the skins off–they’re bitter.

Oh! Thank you, good to know! He was very pleased and I thought, now, there’s a foodie.

I have always loved to bake. With Ryan here, we have someone in the household again whom I can go to town around without feeling quite so guilty–it’s a problem when one person needs to lose weight and the other could sure stand to gain some.

Well, nuts. And so I went looking for recipes.

Which is how I came across this flourless chocolate hazelnut cake on a site that won a clearly well-deserved culinary award.

Caution, though: definitely read through before starting.

I told Richard in the middle of it that next time I would know what I was doing and it would go a whole lot faster. It took me something like an hour and a half to get it into the oven, checking and doublechecking that I wasn’t forgetting anything, figuring out why you do this and then that on the two sets of hazelnuts in definitely the order she said. And I’m glad she said a half pound here to let me know that the four ounce measure of them there was to be in weight, not volume–it made a cup, not a half cup.

Six eggs, two extra egg whites, dark chocolate, and 3/4 lb of nuts. We can live with that.

I didn’t add the liqueor nor the espresso powder, good little Mormon that I am, but I will say that only bourbon vanilla will do for chocolate. I scooped the last of the batter from the spatula and bowl and cuisinart and onto a plate and nuked it. Wow was it good!

She suggests topping it with ganache.

I think my old chocolate torte recipe just got totally upstaged.


9 Comments so far
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It’s also a problem when there’s only one person in the house and that one person needs to lose weight, and that one person reads about yummy chocolate hazelnut before breakfast. (You know I’m going to be hitting the Nutella with the BIG spoon!)

(You’re a dangerous influence, Hyde.)

Comment by LynnM 05.26.12 @ 12:07 am

Wow. Better than the best? It must be good!!

Comment by Channon 05.26.12 @ 5:26 am

Lynn is dangerous, now I am going to go find the Nutella and enjoy some toast and tea.

Comment by Kris 05.26.12 @ 7:21 am

oh no! there’s no Nutella in the house!!

do you suppose that you’ll be able to do this recipe as effortlessly as the torte with a little practice?

Comment by Bev 05.26.12 @ 8:57 am

So sorry, you know I’m allergic to nuts. The torte will have to stay at the top of the list for me. As for LynnM, you’ll have to post some diet desserts so she gets her just desserts.

Comment by Don Meyer 05.26.12 @ 9:57 am

That sounds so good!
Oscar and I are becoming foodies, I called him in to the kitchen today to show him my ‘pepper spanking’ method of removing seeds :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 05.26.12 @ 10:10 am

Oh, now why did you have to go and do this? I don’t have a Ryan here to eat 7/8’s of one of these. Maybe I need to go find some black squirrels…

Comment by twinsetellen 05.26.12 @ 8:23 pm

Well, I think the torte stays at the top unless it is proven otherwise to me. Enjoy all the young’uns being home.

Comment by Andrea 05.26.12 @ 9:34 pm

Your description of the squirrel reminds me of my grandson when he was a toddler. Forbidden to drink outside of the kitchen, he stood in the kitchen doorway. One foot was in the kitchen, the other in the dining room.

Comment by RobinM 05.27.12 @ 4:55 pm



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