Chocolate Walnut Torte

In mood for something healthy and yummy for dessert?? How perfect would the world be, if fried chicken became healthy and eating salad would count as the most unhealthy food. In search of that health+deliciousness, I thought of something similar to Almond Torte but used chocolate and walnuts instead. The Chocolate Walnut Torte is deliciously yummy and healthy. It tastes very much like Brownie but just that there is no butter and flour in it. This was made to suffice my husband's post dinner dessert cravings. I tried to follow the recipe from Elana's Pantry with the modifications as per my taste. I hope you enjoy this!!

Ingredients: 
Walnuts, coarsely ground - 1 cup
Sugar - 6 tbspns
Eggs, separated - 3
Salt - 1/2 pinch
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

Procedure: 

1. Grease an 8 inch pan (I used a spring form pan) and preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips stirring every 1 min (It will take only 2 minutes for the chocolate to melt). Mix it well and keep it aside.
3. Now whisk the egg yolks and 4 tbspns sugar for 2mins (till it is pale yellow in color).
4. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with salt till soft peaks form. Now add remaining sugar (1/2 tbspn at a time) and beat till stiff peaks form. 
5. Now mix the chocolate and walnuts in the egg yolks and then fold 1/3rd of the egg whites and mix well. Then again add another 1/3rd of the egg whites and mix well. Repeat it once again and mix the batter till it is just combined and white streaks are not seen.
6. Pour the batter in the greased pan and bake it for 20-25mins (or until the cake springs back when pressed gently).
7. Sprinkle some white powdered sugar to garnish and serve warm with some vanilla ice cream (come on, you can have one small bite of that ice cream once in a while) and / or chocolate syrup!!! 

Variations: 
You can try different sauces with it. I am planning to make a raspberry sauce which go perfectly with it.


Conclusion: 
Super delicious Chocolate Walnut Torte is done in less than an hour!  

Almond Torte

Almond torte is what I tasted at the Farmer's market in LA and loved it. So the baker in me wanted to bake it but was not sure how. So I referred to this site which had detailed instructions as well. So I tried making it twice and was kind of successful the third time (but I still need practice). Now you must be wondering what went wrong twice before!!!

First time, I ground the blanched almonds with sugar and then ground the sugar in the same container(1st mistake, no grease must be added to egg whites). Then I started beating the egg whites with an immersion blender (2nd mistake) and then added the ground sugar to it. So the egg whites never formed peaks. Experiment #1 failed terribly :-(
To improvise my mistake #2, I used an Indian style blender (3rd mistake) with a whip attachment and it failed again :-(. Thank god the eggs are not expensive :-) So my experiment failed twice and I was wondering what I did wrong.
I did it right the third time and whipped the eggs perfectly fine. I realized my mistake as I spoke to my sister-in-law who lives in North Carolina. We always discuss food and recipes as our husbands are total foodies. She pointed out that egg can beaten well with a stand mixer. Then I went to Target to buy a stand mixer for just $7 :-)


Ingredients: 
Room temperature Egg Whites - 3
Blanched Almonds - 1 cup + 1tbspn
Sugar - 1/3 cup + 1tspn
Lemon Juice - 2-3 drops
Salt - 1 pinch
Stand Mixer

Procedure: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a smaller than 8" pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Now sprinkle 1tbspn sliced almonds on it.
2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks when cold and keep them out of refrigerator for at least 30mins. 
3. Now grind the blanched almonds with 1/3 cup sugar (I ground them in 2 batches for fineness) and keep it aside. Make sure you don't over grind the mixture else you will end up getting almond butter.
4. Now add lemon juice and salt to the egg whites and beat them with a hand mixer (do not use immersion blender. I made that mistake)
5. It will take few minutes for the soft peaks to form. Then add 1tspn sugar and beat for another 30secs or till stiff peaks form.
6. Fold the almond sugar mixture in the egg whites and pour it in the baking pan. Bake it for 45mins or till a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Variations: 
Like the others, you can add almond flavor but I didn't have it handy and also because I like natural flavors, I didn't add it. You can use 3/4tspn for strong almond flavor.

Conclusion:
Full of protein and 'Good' fats dessert is ready! It really tastes yummy although it could have been much better in texture (risen a little more).
It is good for health freaks (like my Hubby), foodie (again like my Hubby) and wannabe brainy (It's Me this time) ;-)