← Nouns Cooking · Italian

Ingredients

• 200 g dark chocolate (about 60–70% cocoa), chopped
• 200 g unsalted butter, diced
• 180 g caster sugar
• 5 eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 220 g Ground almonds
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 tbsp Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C (340°F). Butter a 23 cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Leave to cool for 5 min.
3. Beat the yolks with half the sugar for 3–4 min until pale and thick. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then the ground almonds.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk the whites with the salt to soft peaks, then add the rest of the sugar and whisk until glossy and holding firm peaks.
5. Stir a spoonful of whites into the chocolate to loosen it, then gently fold in the rest in two batches, keeping as much air as you can.
6. Scrape into the tin and bake for 40–45 min, until the top is crackled and a skewer in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Cool in the tin for 30 min (it will sink a little), then unclip and dust with icing sugar. Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Tips

• Contains a lot of almonds, so keep it away from guests with nut allergies.
• Keeps beautifully for 3 days in a tin, and gets fudgier each day.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

GialloZafferano Cooking with Manuela Marcellina in Cucina