WW Maine sponsorship

Valentine’s Day is all about love and what better way to show how much you care than to make something yourself. If your sweetie has a sweet tooth, look no further. Andrea Swanson is sharing her recipe for a flourless chocolate torte. She and her husband Dan own Foley’s Gourmet Bakery at One Monument Square in Portland, Maine. You owe it to yourself to stop by and indulge if you’re in the neighborhood. Self-love, you know. It’s important.

And if you’d like to learn how to be a gourmet baker like Andrea, Foley’s offers professional baking classes. Check the website for upcoming classes. Consider this blog post your own personal baking class. It’s a straightforward recipe, but the results are anything but. Thank you, Andrea!

Foley's Bakery flourless torte

Flourless Chocolate Torte

I chose this particular recipe partly because it is the most chocolaty recipe I know of and partly to emphasize the fact that we are really making an effort at Foley’s to cater to people with special food needs. We do savory gluten-free and vegan items every day, including our delicious soups. We can also fill special cake requests with the same criteria.

This yummy (if I do say so myself) torte is gluten-free and can also be vegan. What you need to do is check the ingredients in the chocolate you buy. Milk chocolate contains dairy products, but most dark chocolate is vegan. You’ll still want to make sure it doesn’t contain any whey or other milk products.

(Note from Diane: A brand of dairy-free chips that I’ve used before is Enjoy Life.)

Ingredients

  • 10 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (chips are fine)
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1 pound good quality bittersweet chocolate
  • 6 oz. coconut oil
  • 1 cup aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Ganache

  1. Put semisweet chocolate into a medium stainless steel bowl
  2. Heat orange juice and bring it to a boil.
  3. Pour the orange juice over the chocolate. Whisk until chocolate is melted and set aside to cool.

Torte

  1. Melt the bittersweet chocolate with the coconut oil. Set aside but keep warm.
  2. Beat the aquafaba with the granulated sugar until light.
  3. Add the chocolate to the sugar/aquafaba and whisk on high speed about five minutes.
  4. Pour the mixture into 8″ pan lined with parchment paper and bake 35 minutes.
  5. Pull out of oven and allow to cool.
  6. After cooling the torte, remove it from the pan.

Adding the ganache

  1. Take half of the ganache and whip in mixer until light in color and thickened.
  2. Spread over cooled torte as evenly as possible.
  3. Pour the remaining ganache (reheat if necessary) over the top of the torte and decorate as desired.

Enjoy! And Happy Valentine’s Day!