Flourless Chocolate Torte

It was my friend R's 31st brithday and I decided I would bake him a cake. Only after reading the recipe did it dawn on me that I no longer had egg beaters. To make a story short: I had a few of my ex-roommie D's kitchen gadgets on loan while she worked in Mexico as a trapeze instructor (after she quit her engineering job. Crazy, I know...). She came back to Canada while I was in Vietnam and took them away. This is why I made hummus in a food blender instead of her food processor this week. Eating large chunks of garlic was rather unpleasant...

So after borrowing some egg beaters, I was ready to bake. I have heard that people either like to bake or cook. I like to cook. Baking requires too much precision for me. I am always afraid something will go wrong. Instructions don't always make sense to me either: "inserted toothpick should come out very moist but not liquid"... Sounds clear until you are facing the toothpick, wondering if it is very moist or liquid! This is why I stick with the tried-and-tested recipes. I have made this Flourless Chocolate Torte from the Williams-Sonoma Dessert cookbook before. I remember it turning out well and it looking impressive!

This recipe did not take very long to prepare. If you were only baking ONE torte. As usual when I bake, I make one (major) bad judgment. I remember the last time I baked this, I used a tart pan with a removable bottom. When I took out the torte, the rim came off and burned me causng me to drop the whole torte on the floor. Splat! This time I still used the tart pan - that was fine, I had learned my lesson. However, the torte was stuck to the bottom. I skipped the crucial step of lining the bottom with parchment paper because I was too lazy to cut a circle design and truly thought it was unnecessary. All steps in baking are necessary when you bake. Do not improvise! Stoopid, Stoopid, Stoopid me! After doing my best with trying to peel the torte off the bottom, I had a very broken torte. So I had to bake a second one.

The first chocolate torte came out perfect, until I tried to remove it out of the pan.

After lining the pan with parchment paper, the second chocolate torte was easily removed and flipped for the chocolate glaze application.

Chocolate glaze. Hmmmm!!

Flourless Chocolate Torte with Chocolate Glaze. You can't have too much chocolate!

Being an inexperienced food blogger, I am still not sure if you can legally publish a recipe, even after reading Can a Recipe Be Stolen? from the Washington Post. (Another good source on recipe publishing is Wandering Chopsticks' post on blogging.) Luckily, Williams-Sonoma's recipes are online.

This torte was very tasty, which is not a surprise considering the ridiculous amount of chocolate and butter in the recipe! It was also very rich so a small piece goes a long way. Having said that, we were able to eat most of the two tortes I baked! I also made a raspberry coulis to serve the torte with.

Chocolate Torte served with Raspberry Coulis.

Raspberry coulis

* raspberries, fresh or frozen

* lemon juice
* fine sugar

Blend everything together.

Adjust sugar level to taste.

Strain through sieve.

Pour into squeeze bottle.

Tada!

For other chocolate-y desserts:
* Chestnut Brownies
* Chocolate Fondue
* Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake
* Chocolate Pie with Meringue Topping
* French Chocolate Bark
* Dark Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes
* Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake