Description
A decadent, gluten-free flourless chocolate cake recipe with no added sugar necessary!
Ingredients
Scale
- 8 large eggs, cold
- 1 pound dark, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- optional toppings: powdered sugar and berries
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides of the pan. Center the pan on a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil and wrap the edges up around the sides of the pan. Repeat with a second sheet of foil. Set the pan in a large roasting pan, or any pan that’s larger than the springform. Bring a kettle or pot of water to boil.
- In a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs at high speed until the volume doubles. This usually takes about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and butter together. You can either do this in a double boiler on the stove (by placing the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl, set over a pan of almost-simmering water, and stirring until melted and smooth). Or you can do this in the microwave (by heating the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate and butter are melted and smooth). Take care not to overheat the chocolate – you only want to heat it enough so that the chocolate *just* melts.
- Fold about a third of the beaten eggs into the chocolate mixture using a large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible. Fold in half of the remaining egg foam, and then the last half of the foam, until the mixture is totally homogenous. Do not overstir.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared springform pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. Place the roasting pan on the oven rack and VERY carefully pour in enough boiling water to come about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the springform pan from the water bath and set it on a wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
- About 30 minutes prior to serving, run a knife around the edges of the cake and carefully remove the sides of the springform pan. Carefully slip a spatula under the parchment to loosen and remove the pan base and transfer the cake to a serving platter. If desired, lightly dust the cake with powdered sugar and top with berries. To slice, use a sharp, thin-bladed knife, dipping the knife into a pitcher of hot water and wiping the blade before each cut.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated http://www.cooksillustrated.com/
Making this for a potluck at work! One of the girls I work with has a gluten allergy so this is perfect! I’m going to swirl some carmel on top as well as some powdered sugar should be awesome!
★★★★★
This is my family fav. I make it all the time.
★★★★★
This was delicious! It did take 40 minutes to bake instead if the 25 recommended in the recipe. Will make this again!
★★★★★
I made this and it was so amazingly rich and delicious i highly recommended this recipe
Looks like a great alternative
★★★★★
Love this cake. Salivating just thinking about how good it is with homemade chocolate ganache and whipped cream. Yum. (I add Truvia into the warm chocolate/butter mixture. I also add some to the homemade whipped cream and chocolate ganache. I just like it all a little bit sweeter)
★★★★★
I have baked it twice. The 1st time I cut the recipe in half, but baked it too long in the 6 ramekins. It was difficult to flagrant when it was done; 120 temperature using instant read resulted in basically an over baked brownie. Today I’m baking it in a 9in springform and keeping bake time at 30 minute &’inner temperature at 115. Where does one find 7-8 & 12 inch springform pans. I searched all the best cooking shops in MI where I loved & baked for 65 years. Nada. I started backing when I was 5 standing on a stool in either my Mom’s or Grandma’s kitchens. This was using a spoon to cream the butter & mix up cookies, beat whipped cream & also eggs with a dinner fork. I made meringues that way too. I am familiar with & use hot water bath method for the best NY cheesecake that was amazing. I was the dessert baker for friend & family parties. My cheese cake had a dozen lg eggs, 1 cup of sugar & 16 oz marscapone & 32 oz of best quality cream cheese & 2 TBSP of real vanilla. It was poured into a 10 inch springform well buttered & lined with crushed graham crackers mixed with butter that weren’t prebaked. It baked at 200 on lower oven rack for 3 hours. Sometimes about 10 minutes before it was finished baking I spread a sour creme & egg & sugar mixture carefully over the top. There was 16 Oz of creme fraische or sour cream in the cheesecake too. So I am a very good baker & cook. I ask questions in restaurants & get invited into the master baker’s domaine & the master Chef’s domaine to observe. I never turn down that opportunity & have learned much. I’m told I am a self trained chef qualified cook. I am now gluten & dairy sensitive and really appreciated finding your blog. I have learned to adapt many of my Aunties & Grandma’s recipes. I love yeast breads, but have yet to find any good flour or bakery that does yeast products that are any good. I also can’t eat nuts or peanuts so that limits milk choices. But the biggest problem is that I can’t find a good gluten free flour. Bob’s red Mill is just okay. I have a good quick bread recipe using GF oat flour with flax meal but that doesn’t make good sandwiches. If anyone out there has similar problems & has some solutions please share. Thanks for this amazing flourless chocolate cake.
★★★★★
Can I make this recipe with muffin tins for individual portions ?
I have cooked this twice, each time a dense jelly layer on the bottom and fluffy layer which is more like cake on the top. Anyone know what I am doing wrong please
★★★★★
Delicious recipe, I’ve made it four times recently and the first time it was perfect. The next three times I’ve had varying degrees of oil on top of the mixture that I can’t get to mix back in. The cake still turns out yummy but not as perfect as the first time. Any thoughts on why this would happen? I’m using Guittard chocolate with a mixture of semi-sweet and bittersweet baking wafers and bars I’ve chopped up. Thank you so much!
Wafers arent real chocolate. That might be your problem.
Not at all to my liking. I have made flourless tortes before but could’t find my old recipe. I was hoping for something rich and decadent (“uber-chocolatey” as described) but this tasted “meh” – like basic chocolate cake. Beating the eggs is probably what ruined it for me. I was hoping for a dense, rich chocolate flavor but this is spongy and bland. (I used Hershey’s Dark chocolate chip morsels). It’s probably my fault for expecting something it was not intended to be. If you’re looking for a basic gluten free chocolate cake, then this could be the ticket (my husband says he likes it, so two stars from him).
★★
It probably tasted “meh”, because Hershey is a bad quality and cheap chocolate. If you use good quality dark chocolate it will make your chocolate dessert recipes sooo much better!… And decadent.
Has anyone tried this with 100% dark chocolate? If so, did you make any adjustments to the butter?
I made this but cooked it much longer than 22min, more like 50min! Perfect!
★★★★★
This was so easy to make and tastes wonderful.
★★★★★
What a lovely rich chocolaty cake…my Valentine was very impressed ♥️ I used all organic ingredients with 37% milk chocolate and 70% dark…Mmm…just divine. Shame cannot post picture.
★★★★★
This was AMAZING, served for Valentines Day. The batter would not all fit in my 8” spring form pan which was messy and somewhat stressful as l transferee the batter over into my 10–12” spring form instead. Tasted delicious!
Mine failed due the water bath that was recommended. The water seeped into the cake and made it an inedible mess. Wish I hadn’t water bathed this as it was just huge eggy mess sadly that no one got to enjoy.
Did you not wrap the aluminum foil around the pan? It would be very hard to get water inside with that.
I will say this, the prep was easy and the taste was delicious. But for whatever reason, baking it for 30 minutes wasn’t sufficient for it to set after chilling in the fridge for 2 hours. When I inverted it and tried to put it back, the goo in the middle exploded and our cake was no more. LOL The mess left all over my counter tasted great, though.
Next time, I will buy the larger size foil as I suspect water may have crept a bit into my batter, I will bake it for at least 45 minutes, and then let it chill overnight.
★★★★
This recipe is amazing! It was my first time making a torte of any kind. I baked mine in some small greased ramekins in a water bath for about 25 minutes and they came out perfect, like little lava cakes that are just firm enough to hold their shape while being super moist and decadent. I used cheap dark chocolate morsels, too. Awesome!
★★★★★
Did you wrap all the ramekins? How’d you do water bath?
My mom made in small spring form in her IP @ 10 min, using foil.
Hi there
what is the shelf life of this cake?
They state 4 days in refrigerator. I have kept this for 7 days with no problem in fridge
It tasted great and I followed the directions to the tee. I cook all the time, so am never intimidated by complicated recipes, let alone simple ones. It was cooked perfectly, but for the life of me, I could not get it off the springform pan. I put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and tried again; it just smooshed up together. So I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours and could finally get it off the bottom of the springform pan. Previous to that I was about ready to scoop it out and just put it in compote bowls with a little whipped cream on top and some berries, as why waste a perfectly good desert
★★
Looks yummy! Can I make this in a regular cake pan instead of a springform pan? thanks!
This looks amazing! I don’t have a stand mixer, could the eggs be fluffed like this in a vitamix??
★★★★★
Will this cake be good if I make it the night before?
Yes.
★★★★★
This was absolutely wonderful…my guests loved it, we loved it..,my first flourless attempt.,,NOT MY LAST‼️?‼️?
Thanks for this recipe!
Sue H.
Can i freeze left overs of this cake?
★★★★★
Yes! I’ve had success with freezing this torte. Wrap individual slices in a few layers of cling wrap and try to make sure they’re air tight, to prevent freezer burn.
Can I use a 9 inch springform pan?
Not not a very good baker, but I find this recipe extremely easy.
For some reason it takes a lot longer to cook in my oven however so far the past two times I’ve made it turned out perfectly. Thank you
★★★★★
Mine took probably closer to 35-40 minutes to get a fairly uniform crust and only a slight jiggle. I didn’t want to take it out too soon because I thought it would probably just collapse into soup. It seemed to absorb the remaining pool of butter during the cooling process. Haven’t tried it yet.
★★★
I was attracted to this flourless chocolate cake recipe because it’s 3 simple ingredients fit well in my keto diet. I used a 50/50 mix of 60% Ghiradelli chocolate chips and 100% Ghiradelli chocoalte chips, making it approximately 80% dark. I follwed the directions perfectly and looking at the step-by-step pictures, mine looked pretty much the same every step of the way, that is, until I got to the part where the cake was in my 8″ springform pan. Once I poured it inot the pan a layer of butter rose to the top and just sat there. I am not sure why, because prior to pouring the batter into the pan, the butter was well incorporated. Never having made this before I figured that maybe that was what was supposed to happen so I put it in the oven, following the instructions. I set my timer for 20 min so I could check it and then add a few minutes at a time based on how the cake was looking. At 20min, the layer of butter was still at the top, and now was bubbling, but the cake seemed gooey still. The sides did not remotely look like they were set so I added 10 minutes (bringing it to a total of 30 min cook time) and reassessed after those 10 minutes. At that point it still looked uncooked with butter bubbling in the top (basically frying the top of the cake, I think) so I added more time, yet again. When it had been in the oven for 50 minutes, I decided I was going to take it out regardless, because if it wasn’t cooked at that point something was clearly not right. At that point, the little portion of the top that was not covered in grease, felt crusty so I figured that the cake must have cooked. I checked the internal temperature with a thermometer and it went up to at least 140 degrees, so I knew it was done. At that point I literally took the pan to my sink, tipped it and poured the butter into the sink (yes, there was that much butter on the top). I let the cake rest and when it was cooled, put it in the fridge. Ultimately, when we tried it, it was not terrible… a little bitter, but once I made a ganache with 60% dark chocolate chips, it balanced out the bitterness a bit. I am not sure whether the bitterness of the cake came from the fact that it appears that I might have cooked it about 5 – 10 minutes too much, or whether it stemmed from the fact that it was approximately 80% dark chocolate (I typically eat 85% chocolate and I don’t think that it’s particularly bitter, so 80% should taste even less so for me). Regardless of the bitterness, which can be resolved with either sweeter chocolate or less cooking time (or probably both), the butter issue remains. Has this happened to anyone before? For the life of me I cannot understand why the butter rose to the top when I followed the directions EXACTLY. Any ideas?
★★★
Sandy, we’ve made flourless cakes before so we thought we’d try this one….we had the SAME thing happen to ours. We blended all exactly as recommended till one could not see any butter; however we were SO disappointed to have a pool of butter floating on top of the finished cake. The temp. of the cake was 140 degrees but had needed about 50 mins. to get there. WHY??? I don’t understand either. We WON’T be making this recipe again.
If anyone can explain to Sandy and I what could have made this happen, we’d appreciate it.
Excellent. I halved the recipe and cooked it in a 7-inch tin.
★★★★★
Easy, Decadent and delicious!! Used silicone pan and favored with rose water – mmmmm – perfection :)
★★★★★
Delicious! It’s now our favorite family birthday “cake”. Generally takes 40 minutes in our oven and great with Guittard extra dark baking chips.
★★★★★
I made it in just a regular round pan in the oven and it still turned out very good about 15-20 minutes since I didn’t have a spring form pan
Springform pan was terrible advice. Two layers of foil is not enough to prevent leakage from the water bath. Recipe should have called for a regular baking pan. Soggy, awful cake and burnt hands trying to fix it. Worst recipe I have ever baked.
★
I’ve made this cake before. Really easy, and really good. This time I added a few ounces of milk chocolate to mostly 72% dark. Wanted to see if it would ‘mellow’ the taste a bit!!!
I will be making this today !
★★★★★
I used my mother’s circa 1950s stand mixer (thanks to its all steel construction, it still works!). I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of only filling the pan with half the water recommended; it took around 45 minutes in the oven. It is very rich having the consistency of a very dense pudding – not a cake I will be baking often but this was a fun experience using my first spring form pan.
★★★★★
I don’t bake often and I was hoping for a good result as this was for a going away for a coworker. My concern after reading comments was the butter that has risen to the top after baking which I also experienced. I don’t know why, but I set the springform pan on wire racks in the sink; when I returned 30-45 minutes later the butter had been absorbed. I’m wondering if the butter is the difference. I recently read that butter in the US has (more) water in it than butter from overseas (example in the article I read was re:Kerrygold butter). I used an electric oven and had to bake it 40 minutes. I’m told the cake was really good.
I made these dairy free. With dairy free chocolate chips and vegan butter earth balance brand. They turned out great:)
★★★★★
Also i made them in a cupcake tin i don’t recommend using liners they stuck a bit.
★★★★★
Delicious fudgy cake! was hesitant after reading some of the reviews. I had only 6 eggs, so I used one 10 oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips and 1.5 sticks of butter. Baked in the water bath for 35 min with convection bake. The cake was amazing. It came out of the springform pan without a hitch after cooling at room temperature and then in the fridge (total cooling time about 3 hours). I sprinkled coconut flakes on top. Next time I will put a thin ganache before the flakes. Even with the slight changes in ingredient amounts the cake turned out perfect. Thank you. Will make again many more times!
★★★★★
Baked mine for 26 minutes and internal temp was 155 but this did not set! So disappointed as I’ve made this before and it was wonderful!
Can I make this without a springform pan?
Outstanding – made for clients of mine who are dairy and gluten free . Used a plant butter it was amazing
★★★★★
Can I freeze this cake and thaw it to serve at a later date?
How do I adjust recipe for a 9” springfirm pan please? I do not have 8”. Thx!
★★★★★