Chocolate moelleux is a mouth-watering dish. A chocolate cake with a melting heart. It’s said to have been created by a chef in Avignon, Michael Bras, and the world will be forever grateful! This adaption by Suzanne Dunnaway using almond or pecan nuts is an absolute winner…
Ingredients for nutty Chocolat Moelleux
125 g whole toasted almonds or pecans (or almond flour)
150 g dark chocolate, 85% cacao
150 g butter, softened
175 g sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon very strong espresso or Cognac
Pinch of salt
A little soft butter and tablespoons of flour to coat your pan
Method
Heat oven to 350 F/185C.
Generously butter and flour a springform pan or a trusty loaf cake pan.
In the bowl of a food processor, grind the chocolate and nuts until broken down and blended. Then add the soft butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, coffee (or Cognac) and egg yolks, and process for a few seconds until well-blended. Remove to a large bowl.
In another clean bowl, beat the whites stiff but not dry and fold a spoon into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the rest of the whites, keeping the mixture as light as possible.
Spread the batter evenly in the buttered and floured springform or loaf pan and bake for about 20-30 minutes, just until the cake is barely set.
It should move a tiny bit when you gently nudge the pan back and forth.
You will smell this cake when it is almost done and it will drive you mad.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely. It must not be too wobbly or it will be too liquid inside, but you do want it very moist at the center as you cut serving pieces.
When the cake is cool, run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and remove the cake from the springform pan by siding a long knife under the cake.
Or turn the loaf cake out onto a plate and invert.
Dust with powdered sugar sprinkled through a sieve.
The cake will have fallen a bit, but that’s fine, it always does as there is no flour.
The inside should be moist and almost creamy unless it has cooked a bit too long. I take it out just when I think I should leave it in a minute or two more.
This cake freezes well and can be warmed after thawing before serving, but the inside will not be as moist as on the first day.
Suzanne Dunnaway is the author of No Need To Knead, Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes (Hyperion); Rome, At Home, The Spirit of la cucina romana in Your Own Kitchen (Broadway Books); No Need to Knead (Metric/American version-Grub Street Publishers, London).
