Chocolate Almond Torte...

...Pudding for the weekend was the Chocolate and Almond Torte with homemade Mascarpone Ice-Cream...both of which came from my Mother's Day pressie cookbook..Lisa Faulkner's 'Recipes from my Mother for my Daughter' 

These are the second and third recipes I've tried from this book in the last week...(which is pretty good considering I only got it last weekend!!)

The pudding was originally planned for the Friday night, following the Veggie Indian Feast...here, here, here, here and here (will add the last two links when I post them!!)...but after that lot we were pretty full!! So the Torte got pushed to Saturday after the tasty Mushroom, Artichoke and Olive Bake...

The Torte itself was pretty straightforward to make, it takes rather a lot of eggs - 8 that have been separated...but be warned, it's not a low-fat pud in any way shape or form!!(However, Cath and I are thinking it is low carb and high protein - are way of justifying the amount we have eaten!!)

To start off you need to heat your oven Gas 3/160c and grease and line a tin 18x24cm...then, separate eight eggs (yup, that's 8 eggs!!) take the 8 yolks and whisk up with 225g caster sugar...melt 300g butter and 400g dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water...and combine the two by adding the chocolate mix to the yolks and sugar...mix well...and then pop in a tsp of vanilla or 1 vanilla pod split and scraped...so just the seeds go in!!

Now take the 8 egg whites and whisk up with 75g caster sugar, until soft peaks are formed...add 1-2 tsp baking powder to this and mix...

Fold the egg white mix into the chocolate mix...I find adding a large spoonful of the whites first helps slacken the chocolate mix and makes folding in easier...fold the rest in until no white can be seen...

Finally fold in 200g ground almonds...again, make sure there are no visible streaks of almond in the mix...

The recipe says to pour into a shallow baking tin that is about 24x28cm but I found there was far too much mix, and ended up hastily greasing a second tin!!

...Cook for about 45 mins...take out and...

...leave to cool slightly before serving...

It will snk slightly, as is the way of whisked sponges...

But the texture is absolutely gorgeous...

...dense, yet light, chocolatey, gooey heaven on a plate!!

The mascarpone ice-cream goes so well with it...this pudding was a hit with all...including the smallish ones!! It also keeps well for a day or so and reheats in the microwave to recreate the whole dessert experience again - if you have any left!!