Silvia’s Cucina’s Chocolate and Hazelnut Truffle Cake Recipe
Italian food lover, blogger and actress Silvia Colloca shares her flourless chocolate hazelnut truffle cake recipe from her new cookbook Silvia’s Cucina.
I feel beholden to this simple flourless cake. The moment I posted the recipe on the blog, back in June 2011, I knew something in my short-lived blogger life had changed. Comments started trickling in, and that trickle soon became a torrent! It seems that this traditional cake from Piemonte speaks a language that everybody is fluent in: chocolate. But to call this a chocolate cake doesn’t really do it justice.
There is so much more to it than that.
What makes this indulgent cake so alluring is the addition of Frangelico and coffee-spiked cocoa paste. This blissful blend somehow ‘chocifies’ the chocolate: it is chocolate to the power of 10. So if you love a gentle, sweet, milk-chocolate cake, torta gianduja is not for you. But if you are a true believer, a proud chocolate addict, read on . . .
Extract from the book ‘Silvia’s Cucina’ by Silvia Colloca, & photography by Chris Chen, published by Lantern, RRP $39.99
Serves: 8
Ingredients
150 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
160 g dark 70% chocolate, broken into pieces, or dark chocolate chips
pinch of salt flakes
2½ tablespoons hot espresso coffee
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Frangelico or rum
4 eggs
250 g brown sugar
1 cup (100 g) hazelnut meal
1 handful of roasted, roughly chopped hazelnuts
whipped cream and fresh berries, to serve
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line a 24 cm round cake tin with baking paper. (You could also use a smaller tin, in which case the cake will be higher.)
2. Melt the butter, chocolate and salt in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). When melted, remove from the heat.
3. Whisk together the hot coffee and cocoa powder in a bowl until there are no lumps. Stir in the vanilla and Frangelico or rum, then add to the melted chocolate and mix to combine.
4. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the brown sugar and beat with a whisk or hand-held electric beaters until creamy. Pour into the chocolate mixture, then stir in the hazelnut meal and chopped hazelnuts.
5. Pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 45–55 minutes or until the edges are firm and the surface is cracked but feels soft in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 1 hour, then gently turn out the cake and sit it on a cake stand.
6. Dust with cocoa powder and serve with whipped cream and your favourite berries.
Note
This cake tastes even better the next day. If making a day ahead , store it in its tin at room temperature, and garnish with cocoa powder, berries and cream just before serving.
