Recipes
Omid Jaffari’s Flourless Chocolate Cake with Glazed Pears
Yes yes, I know it's very fancy...but sometimes we deserve a little bit of the fancy stuff! Today's post sees us continue the baking theme we began earlier on this week, with another delectably succulent cake. Next week it's back to the raw!
It's been really difficult to come up with a chocolate cake recipe that has no flour or dairy, but still has that beautiful airy, fluffy quality. This cake is really quite rich, so please beaware that you'll only need small doses in order to satisfy your chocolate addiction. What makes this recipe particularly delish is Loving Earth's Coconut Sugar...it really bestows an earthy sweetness upon the chocolate.
For the Chocolate Cake
- 1 cup Cacao Powder
- 1 ½ cups almond milk or rice milk (warmed on the stove)
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence (or ground Vanilla Beans)
- ¼ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 ¼ cups Coconut Sugar
- ½ cup buckwheat flour
- 2 tbsp tapioca or potato starch
- 1 tbsp dry Ener-G egg replacer
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
For the Chocolate Cake
1. Place the cacao powder into your blender and add the warm young coconut water or rice milk. Cover tightly, ensuring the top stopper of the blender is only half on to allow steam to escape. Pulse a couple of times.
2. Add the vanilla essence and pumpkin puree. Cover and blend until gently combined.
3. Add the coconut sugar, buckwheat flour, tapioca, egg replacer, xanthan gum, sea salt, and baking powder. Blend to combine...be careful not to over-blend!
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan; scrape all the batter out with a spatula. Smooth the surface evenly.
5. Bake in the centre rack of the oven at 140 degrees C until the cake is firm (approx 50 to 60 minutes). Please note that only the crust and the surface of the cake should be slightly crispy...the center should be moist.
6. Cool the cake on a wire rack. If it's not to be eaten straight away, cover and keep in the fridge.
For the Glazed Pears
- 4 pears, peeled & cut into quarters
- ¼ cup Dark Agave Nectar
- 1 Vanilla Bean, scraped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup Coconut Sugar
For the Glazed Pears
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch Spring-form pan with greased parchment paper.
1. Gently fry the pears in olive oil until golden, in a medium sized saucepan.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and simmer until they reach a glazy consistency.
3. Arrange pears on top of the cake and garnish with vanilla pods.
