On occasion, I have been asked to bake for work colleagues or for a dinner party, friends or family visiting and so forth and found myself wondering what to make. This recipe is something picked up by way of hybridising a gluten-free recipe along with a chocolate beetroot sponge cake recipe. The result is a very moist, rich, earthy and bittersweet torte which works excellently with chocolate or coffee stouts, liquers or other digestif spirits after dinner. It’s dairy free and gluten free – although not totally vegan sadly, due to the egg content, but try playing around with the recipe to reach an appropriate consistency using vegan egg substitutes. What you need: 200g of Spelt Flour 150ml Olive Oil 120ml clear honey 3 eggs 3-4 medium sized beetroots 60g of Dark Chocolate (anywhere from 60-100%) 5 tblsp Cocoa Powder ½ tsp Sea Salt ½ tsp dried chilli flakes What to do: 1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (or gas mark 5). 2. Heat the olive oil gently in a saucepan on low heat; add the honey and then the chocolate gradually until melted and mixed thoroughly. 3. Peel and grate the beetroot (best done by leaving a handful’s length of stem on to get a firm grip whilst grating, allowing a quarter turn every few strokes to maintain steady grating), add this to the oil, honey and chocolate which should be removed from the heat now. Stir through thoroughly, allowing to cool for 10 minutes. 4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then gradually add them to the batter mix, folding gently as you add the egg. 5. Sift the flour into the mix, folding it into the batter with the cocoa, chilli and salt ensuring the batter is completely mixed. 6. Pour the batter into a greaseproof paper lined springform tin (~20cm will be perfect), using extra olive oil on the paper, allowing extra paper around the sides to ensure even baking and prevent burnt edges. 7. Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins at 180C – this may vary from oven to oven, so test the centre of the batter/cake mix with a wooden skewer, if it is pricked and batter mix is stuck onto the skewer, it will need further baking. Allow for 5 minutes baking uncovered to allow the mixture to firm up too. Finally cool the torte once baked, release from spingform tin, dust with cocoa and icing sugar, serving with cream and beetroot crisps. For a final flourish... why not make these to accompany the cake... Decorative sweet Beetroot Crisps What you need: 1 beetroot 1 tblsp Olive Oil Enough sugar/salt to season and sweeten (in a 90%/10% mix – or to taste) What to do: 1. Using a sharp knife or mandolin, carefully slice each peeled beetroot into thin (~1mm) wafers, spreading these out on paper towel to remove excess moisture as you go. 2. Sprinkle the sugar and salt mix over the slices and allow to stand for 15 minutes; after 15 minutes, dab with paper towel. 3. Add the slices to a mixing bowl with the olive oil, tossing to allow complete coating of each wafer. 4. Put the slices of beetroot onto a baking tray and roast in a preheated oven (at 180C) for 20 minutes, turning the slices over after 10 minutes. 5. Remove from the tray, placing onto a wire rack or paper towel to cool. Enjoy! Pedro.
3 Comments
John Baron
11/18/2015 01:55:00 pm
Beetroot in a torte? Looks bloody awful.
Reply
Jeremy Tallis
4/21/2016 06:42:49 am
Beetroot goes rather well with chocolate actually. You sound rather the luddite John?
Reply
Harry Walshe
4/24/2020 03:05:08 am
What nonsense. Do you have a clue about baking, cooking or flavour profiles John?
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2022
Archives
April 2022
Click ^ the RSS Feed to follow me
Categories
All
|