18 October 2009

Ricotta & Chocolate cake



This cake is a wonderful mixture of rich decadent chocolate but with a creamy ricotta base. It has a lovely nutty texture while still having a gooey, moist almost cheesecake consistency. I found the end result is more cheesecake-like than cake. I adapted this Jamie Oliver recipe substituting the almond meal in the recipe and adding hazelnut meal instead which I think worked superbly. The tangy lemon zest added a balance to the rich dark Lindt chocolate I used. One could almost be fooled this cake is not bad for you given the wholesome nutty taste and the added bonus of being gluten free.



Ingredients

500g drained ricotta (I used half quark & half ricotta)
Zest of two lemons
4 large eggs, separated
300g sugar (I used 250g and it worked fine)
250g ground almonds (I used hazelnuts)
250g dark Lindt chocolate, melted
1 vanilla pod, sliced lengthways, seeds removed
Icing sugar & crushed blitzed pistachios to serve

Method

1. Sieve ricotta into a bowl through a fine colander using a wooden spoon to push it through. Add lemon zest, egg yolks, sugar & ground hazelnut and melted chocolate, vanilla sees and combine well.

2. In a clean bowl, whisk egg white until peaks are formed. Then using a large metal spoons gently fold in the egg whites. You want the batter to be well combined but still have some air from the egg whites.

3. Preheat oven to 180c and us a 24 cm round cake tin. Smooth in the mixture and make sure the top is smooth using a lightly greased and flour tin.

4. Preheat oven to 180c and then bake for 45 minutes

5. Remove from the oven, allow to cool and then dust with icing sugar and pistachios before serving

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