I spied this spectacular dessert on my dear friend Liz, That Skinny Chick Can Bake social media account at the end of January and was immediately impressed. Flourless and full of chocolatey goodness, this cake ticked off so many boxes, I absolutely had to make it. Get out your pocketbooks because this cake has an enormous amount of chocolate (500 g plus the ganache!). Pull out all the stops and use the best chocolate you can afford.
My first attempt, I reduced the recipe to make two very small tarts. I went full-out low-carb, which meant replacing the sugar with erythritol and using unsweetened chocolate. It was actually fine for my taste but JT suggested a bit more sweetness would satisfy our dinner guests. My attempt at making a simple syrup from erythritol and water proved successful for a pomegranate syrup I had made (but had forgotten to photograph) so I applied the same formula to this recipe, increasing the water to accommodate the large amount of erythritol. I boiled down the syrup to 1 cup and I wouldn’t try boiling it down any more as it had begun to crystallize on the top.
The semi-sweet chocolate sacrificed much of the low carb aspect so I won’t even do the analysis. I may try increasing the erythritol and going back to unsweetened chocolate to see if that might bring the carbs back to a reasonable level, but I’m going to wait with that experiment until we recover from this version of this decadent dessert. If you have a special dinner, this dessert definitely fits the bill and the splurge. Thanks, Liz, I can always count on you for a decadent dessert.
La Bete Noir (Flourless Chocolate Cake)
For the original recipe, please click here.
Serves about 20 people
Ingredients for the cake:
- 375 mL water
- 150 g Erythritol
- 128 g butter, diced
- 388 g semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 112 g unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 6 eggs
Ingredients for the ganache:
- 200 mL heavy cream
- 226 g semisweet chocolate, chopped
Topping, as shown:
- 25-30 g Pistachios, roughly chopped
- 125 mL whipping cream
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare a 25 cm springform pan by covering the bottom and all the way up the sides with two layers of foil paper. Cut a circle from parchment and place it in the inside bottom of the pan. Place the pan into a large, higher-sided pan and set aside.
- Combine the water and erythritol in a small saucepan and heat until boiling, whisking until the erythritol has completely dissolved into the water. Continue to boil and reduce the volume to 250 mL. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Combine the butter with all of the chocolate and heat gently in the microwave until it is melted and smooth. Stir in the erythritol simple syrup. Cool slightly.
- Place all of the eggs into another bowl and beat until fully combined. Pour the eggs all at once into the chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the prepared springform pan. Fill the larger pan with boiling water to about 3/4 the way up. Bake on the centre rack for about 50 minutes or until centre has set.
- When ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. When sufficiently cooled, run a sharp knife along the inside edge to release the cake from the pan. Carefully remove it from the pan and allow to cool completely.
- Place an inverted glass on top of a clean piece of parchment and place a wire rack on top of the glass, set aside.
- Remove the bottom of the springform pan as well as the parchment from the cake and place it on the wire rack that is resting directly on the inverted glass.
- Make the ganache by heating the cream to almost boiling and pour over the chocolate. Mix until the chocolate is completely melted and smoothly combined with the cream.
- Pour the ganache over the cake and allow to flow over the top and sides evenly. Allow this to set at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
- Decorate the top with the chopped pistachios and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Be prepared for guest requesting a take-away box for later (at least our’s did). It’s that good!!!
Notes:
- This cake is extremely rich, so I increased the serving size from 16 to 20.
- The original recipe did not mix semi-sweet with unsweetened chocolate, it was all semi-sweet.
I love chocolate and pistachios so this looks right up my alley!
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You sound like a scientist whose middle name is delicious. GREG
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First of all, I love how dark this cake is. Secondly, though, I love the way you laid out the pistachios. Were you just super-careful laying them onto the cake by hand? Or is there a trick to it?
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What a beautiful rendition; the glaze is just stunning and I love the contrasting green from the pistachio. I smiled at the pull out your pocketbook, yes indeed, but some things are worth it 🙂 I adore flourless chocolate cakes!
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Extremely impressive beautiful cake, Eva! And you’ve managed to adapt it to your diet too! I love the combination of dark chocolate and pistachios (my most frequently made cake’s pistachio version is my favourite!). Luckily I wasn’t there to taste it… I would devour half of this cake if you didn’t stop me!
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Amazing, looks like a sachertore!
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Ha this looks as evil as the name. Totally a knockout Eva
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Mmmm, chocolate! Can never resist. And Liz makes some wonderful desserts, doesn’t she? Love your way of making this — really creative. Thanks!
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This looks amazing! And I’m behind any cake that uses 500g of chocolate! 😛
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The pistachio topping looks great. I have not heard of the sweetener you are using, so will look into that.
Did you know by the way that a scientific experiment funded by an author who got rich on low carb diets has actually proven that low carb or low fat are equally effective? If you’re interested I’ll tell you more.
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I would be very interested Stefan, because the Keto diet is very difficult to maintain due to the high fat content.
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The sweetener doesn’t spike your blood sugar.
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Neither do other artificial sweeteners. The nice thing about this one is that it has a similar bulk to sugar (or so I have learned from online sources).
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This looks gorgeous! I love that it’s sugar free and flourless. Simply heavenly!
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You definitely did this recipe justice and more! Just gorgeous and one of my favorite company desserts! I love that you reduced the carbs, too, without compromising the texture. It looks perfect!!! xoxo
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