The Inspired Kitchen

Flourless Chocolate Cake

A simple and decadent Passover favorite.

By Adeena Sussman

Passover's dietary restrictions are difficult enough, but making a kosher-for-Passover dessert that tastes great can seem like another form of slavery. The absence of leavening agents leaves many a baker bereft at the prospect of an overly dry, leaden Passover dessert.

 

Enter the flourless chocolate cake. Clearly, this dessert does not have its roots in the Exodus from Egypt, but is has rightfully been appropriated by the Jewish people as a Passover favorite. Simple and decadent, this cake has many varieties, most with just a few ingredients.

 

Think of it as fudge for grown-ups. It can be made a day or two in advance of the seder, then spirited out of the fridge an hour or two before serving.

 

Try to use the best-quality chocolate and vanilla you can find, and if you're not serving this dish after a meat meal, by all means substitute butter for the margarine.

 

Serves 12

 

2 sticks margarine or butter

10 ounces good-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

6 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Mint sprigs and assorted berries for garnish

 

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 10-inch springform pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper. In a small saucepan, chocolate and margarine and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until completely melted. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large workbowl, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt with a whisk until incorporated. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add 1/3 of chocolate mixture and stir until incorporated; repeat with remaining 2/3 of chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes, until just set but still soft in the center. Let cool completely. Sift confectioner's sugar over the top of the cake, and garnish with mint and berries.

 

Adeena Sussman is a food writer and chef based in New York. She writes the bimonthly food column Season to Taste for Hadassah magazine, and her work appears regularly on Epicurious.com, and in publications including Time Out New York, The Forward, the San Jose Mercury News, and Sunset magazine. Visit her at adeenasussman.com.