Fearless and Flourless

To all the gluten allergists (not to be confused with people who just decided to stop eating gluten) out there: I made this dessert and you can eat it and love it with no problems. I think that's pretty cool because from my understanding, you guys and gals have a lot of trouble with that restriction. It's also ridiculously rich, tender, and velvety, as though it were a cross between fudge and mousse. It's not THE easiest thing to make, but it only has eight ingredients (or six if you keep reading). You can handle it. Especially when the reward is as sweet as it is.

P.S. It's a flourless chocolate torte.

Ingredients for about 5.5 oz. of mixture (enough for 2 people):

3 oz. chocolate chips (~1/2 cup)

1 tbsp. half n half

1 tbsp. whole milk

1 tbsp. butter

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt (fleur de sel preferred)

1 egg

1 tsp. sugar

Side note: You could probably get away with using 3 tbsp. of heavy cream instead of all the different dairy, cutting your ingredient list to . For a reason I won't bore you with explaining, I had to use half and half to whole milk in a 1:1 ratio.

Ready? Set? Start your oven. To 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put together a double boiler and put all of the ingredients in the first group into it. Put it on low heat to melt the chocolate, stirring often.

 While that's happening, separate an egg, setting aside the yolk (you'll need it in a little bit).

 Whisk your egg white to stiff peaks. Unless you're a speed demon at whisking, your chocolate will probably finish melting before your egg white is where it needs to be. Remove it from the heat. It needs to cool down a little bit so you can add the egg yolk.

 If you want to be on the extra safe side with your chocolate, take the temperature. It should be below 150 degrees F. If not, let it cool more. If you add the yolk at 150, the yolk proteins could coagulate and form small chunks as you mix it in. That translates to lumpy texture in what would have been a silky smooth cake. Which means your cake will suck.

 Mix it in immediately.

 Then, thoroughly mix in about a third of the egg white foam. This is to lighten the chocolate mixture. If you were to add all the foam all at once, the dense chocolate would likely be too much for the egg whites to support. As a result it would deflate all the air bubbles you created by whisking and leave you with a very dense mixture. Again, your cake would suck.

I feel like I should clarify something even though it probably won't pertain to most readers. This is not a souffle. I know it's the exact same procedure and a similar mixture, but this is NOT a souffle. So don't worry TOO much about keeping your egg whites perfectly bubbly. Fold in the rest of the egg whites.

 Until there are NO white streaks (can't stress it enough, this isn't a souffle). The mixture should be shiny, have tiny visible air bubbles on your spatula as you lift it out, and drip in a strand.

 Pour the mixture into a greased bowl or two small ramekins and bake for 17-20 minutes. It should be slightly jiggly just in the center. Carryover heat will finish it.

It should have expanded a little bit in the oven. That's the air in the egg whites keeping your cake from becoming a puck. Thank them.
If you want to turn the cake out of the baking vessel, line the bottom with parchment paper. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes, then turn it out. Otherwise, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. It will be solid when you remove it because of the large proportion of chocolate, so remove from refrigeration 30 minutes prior to serving.
To serve it? Here's some suggestions. Vanilla ice cream, chopped pecans and walnuts, and caramel drizzle. Or a raspberry reduction. If you're feeling really ballsy, maybe some mint-infused whipped cream and mango coulis. I haven't tried that yet but I think I may have to soon.

Thanks for reading!