Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

* 3 tablespoons ground flax seed
* 1/2 cup water
* 8 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate (66% cacao or more)
* 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon instant coffee or instant espresso
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Trace the bottom of your 8-9" spring-form or cake pan and cut out a parchment paper liner. This ensures that your moist cake won't stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Spray your pan with lightly with oil, then place the parchment cutout into the bottom, spray the top of the paper with oil. (Watch video for these steps)
4. Combine the ground flax and water. Set aside. Ground flax needs time to absorb the water.
5. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Using a double boiler or a microwave melt the chocolate until smooth. The video shows the double boiler method. More details below in the tips section about this step.
6. In a bowl mix together all ingredients except the flax and melted chocolate.
7. Fold in the soaked flax then the melted chocolate.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Shake the pan to level the batter in the pan.
9. Bake on the middle rack of oven for 50-60 minutes. To check if cake is done jiggle the pan. If it seems solid, then the cake is finished baking. Using a 9" springform pan the cake baked in 55 minutes; however, using an 8" pan means a thicker batter and a potentially longer baking time.
10. Allow cake to cool to room temperature, cover with foil or plastic wrap, then refrigerate for several hours before serving. It is best if allowed to refrigerate overnight.
11. Top with powdered sugar and fresh berries for a classic look or with ganache for an even more decadent cake.
Tips:
Melting chocolate is not a process to try and rush. Using the double boiler method, a heat safe bowl on top of a pot with boiling water, is the most reliable and ensures that your chocolate will melt without burning or seizing. You can microwave chocolate to melt it; however, it is very easy to overheat the chocolate which causes it to seize instead of melt. Seizing is when the chocolate goes from melted to dry chunks and becomes unusable. If you will be microwaving to melt use 30 second increments and stir between each.
Using a spring form pan allows you to remove the cake from the pan without having to tip it upside down or try and depan which could easily be messy. To serve from the spring form you can serve directly off of the bottom piece or carefully slide the cake from the metal bottom using the parchment paper from the pan preparation.

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Nutrition Values:

Servings 12 | 158 Calories per Serving
23.2 g carb;
17.8 g sugar;
2.2 g protein;
8.6 g fat;
3.2 g fiber;
101.7 mg sodium

*This recipe was calculated using Ghiradelli 60% cocoa dark chocolate. Changing the chocolate will alter the nutrition information.