Heavenly flourless chocolate teacakes

In England, as the name suggests, teacakes are often served with the obligatory afternoon tea. Admittedly, the version presented here has little to do with the "right", gluten-containing and raisin-rich teacakes. Nevertheless, these delicious cakes are great companions to a "coffee party". With their juicy, chocolatey consistency, they're also a great dessert option. The special thing about our chocolate teacakes is that they are completely flour-free. In addition, the ganache is mixed with water in this recipe, unlike the classic way with cream. Is this supposed to work? And whether!

What you need for the chocolate teacakes:

The easiest way is to make the teacakes in a classic muffin shape. Then you get about 12 of them. If you have several small Gugelhupf molds, you can of course also bake the teacakes in them!

For the flour-free chocolate teacakes you need the following ingredients :

• 160 g unsalted butter (plus more for brushing the molds)
• 200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa content, roughly chopped)
• 160 grams of sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (dissolved in 1 teaspoon boiling water)
• 25 ml amaretto
• 160 g ground almonds (our "flour substitute")
• 5 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 0.75 teaspoons of salt

For the water ganache:

• 85 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa content is also best here, very coarsely chopped)
• 35 grams of sugar
• 35 grams of liquid glucose
• 60ml of water
• Half the content of a vanilla bean
• 35g unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into 2cm cubes

How to prepare the chocolate teacakes:

1. First of all, prepare a water bath. Then put the butter and chocolate in the bowl. Let both ingredients melt in a water bath on low and stir the whole thing carefully a few times.
2. Once the butter and chocolate have combined into a creamy mass, remove the bowl from the hot water. If necessary, pour the chocolate-butter mixture into a larger bowl or, if you burst, simply continue to use the bowl from the water bath.
3. Now add half the sugar, the coffee, amaretto, the almonds and the egg yolks. Stir the various ingredients thoroughly and then set the bowl aside.
4. Next, using a stand mixer, in another bowl, beat the egg whites along with the salt for about a minute until creamy and white in color.
5. Then you can add the remaining sugar and stir for another 3-4 minutes until the mass has become reasonably firm.
6. Now put about half of the egg white-sugar mixture in the other bowl and carefully fold it under the chocolate batter. Repeat this with the rest of the egg whites. Then let the dough rest at room temperature for about an hour.
7. Then remember to preheat the oven in good time to 180 °C top/bottom heat, 160 °C circulating air or gas mark 4.
8. Also use the waiting time to grease the molds with melted butter. Before filling, place the molds upside down on some kitchen paper so that the excess fat can run off.
9. When the waiting time is over, divide the batter evenly among the molds, making sure they are only three-quarters full.
10. Bake the teacakes on the middle tray in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The chopstick test tells you whether the cakes are ready.
11. When the cakes are done, be sure to let them cool completely before removing them from the molds.

Let's continue with the chocolate ganache:

1. Pour the chocolate for the ganache into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
2. Then, in a small pan, heat the sugar along with the glucose over low heat, stirring constantly. When the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to medium and let the liquid simmer for about 7 minutes.
3. Keep stirring the mixture in the pan from time to time. When the color of the sugar mixture has turned light brown, take the pan off the heat, wait a minute and then carefully pour in the water. Don't worry if the mixture gets stuck!
4. Return the pan to the stove over medium-high, add the vanilla, and stir until the mixture simmers again.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, wait a minute, and then add the liquid to the chocolate in the bowl.
6. Before continuing, the mixture must cool down for another 5 minutes. Then stir it again and then gradually add the butter while stirring constantly.
7. When the ganache has finally taken on a creamy, glossy consistency, you can pour it evenly over the teacakes that have been removed from the molds.
8. You should now wait one last time until the water ganache has cooled down. After that, nothing stands in the way of the teacake party!

The recipe published here was originally created by well-known celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi and dessert expert Helen Goh.

FAQs about the chocolate teacakes

Here we answer a few questions that might be exciting about the recipe.

Can the almonds be replaced with other nuts?

In any case! There are no limits for the fanatasy :)
If you don't have any ground nuts at home, you can also use regular extra. You can then skip the resting time of the dough.

Speaking of rest time, does that have to be?

If you bake the flourless version listed here, absolutely. The ground almonds need a while to absorb the liquid in the dough. If you don't give the dough its time, the teacakes won't be as deliciously juicy as they can be!

Is this also vegan?

With this recipe, we are actually very unsure what the vegan version could look like. The eggs are simply very important for the consistency of the teacakes. But you can easily replace the butter with margarine, which would at least make the cake lactose-free! If any of you have an idea how the cake could work vegan, please let us know!

Header photo by May Lawrence on Unsplash