Passover is my favorite excuse to bake decadently rich flourless chocolate cakes. A few years ago I wanted to lighten things up a bit, so I added almond flour (aka almond meal) to my standard flourless chocolate cake. The result was a happy surprise – this chocolate almond flour cake, or what my family likes to call our Chocolate Crackle Cake!
My family loves this Passover flourless chocolate cake recipe. It’s completely free of wheat flour. And it’s really quite simple to make! This is a moist and delicious dessert, and a lovely way to end the Seder meal.
How is this Different from the Typical Passover Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe?
A chocolate almond flour cake is a great choice for a Passover dessert. Firstly, it’s wheat free and gluten free. Secondly, the use of almond flour lightens up the texture, making it less dense and heavy than most other flourless chocolate cakes.
The top of this cake will crackle a bit as it cools. Consequently, a crispy sugar-dusted “shell” appears on the cake. A tart and refreshing raspberry coulis with a fresh raspberry and mint leaf garnish completes the dessert. Sounds fancy, but it’s not too complicated– promise!
When considering a chocolate almond flour cake for your own Seder meal, it’s important to check if any of your guests have tree nut allergies. This is not a good choice for nut allergic guests, for obvious reasons! For them, I would recommend a nut-free dessert, like these Passover chocolate chip cookies. For a gluten free nut free option, these raspberry cacao ripple rochers (minus the nut garnish!) would make a tasty choice.
If nuts are not a problem for your holiday crew, then this Passover flourless chocolate cake recipe might make a perfect dessert for your Seder. Enjoy!
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Chocolate Almond Flour Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (you may substitute unsalted non dairy butter/margarine for parve/dairy free)
- 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (use parve chocolate for dairy free)
- 1/4 cup milk (or use unsweetened almond milk for dairy free)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour (aka blanched almond meal)
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- Avocado oil (or melted butter - for greasing the baking pan)
- Fresh mint leaves (for garnish)
Coulis Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries, plus more for garnish
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and inner walls of the pan with avocado oil or melted butter. If using a springform pan (recommended), you may also want to cover the exterior lower half of the pan with a layer of foil to prevent any leakage.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cut the chocolate into large chunks and add it to the pan. Stir until melted.
- Add milk or almond milk, vanilla and salt. Stir until everything is melted together and smooth. Remove from heat. Pour chocolate mixture into a large mixing bowl.
- Separate the eggs. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites along with ½ cup of the sugar until soft peaks form.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the other ¼ cup of the sugar until the mixture turns creamy and light yellow.
- Break up any chunks in the blanched almond meal with a fork or your fingers, then fold the almond meal into the melted chocolate mixture.
- Fold egg yolk mixture into the batter.
- Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the batter, then fold the remaining egg whites until just combined. Mixture should be light and airy from the egg whites. Do not over-mix.
- Fill prepared baking pan with chocolate cake batter. Smooth the surface of the cake with a spatula or spoon.
- Place in the oven and bake the cake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. You can check for doneness with a temperature probe; the internal temperature should reach 200 degrees F. Once it is done baking, remove the cake from the oven and let it return to room temperature.
- Cake will deflate slightly and the top of the cake will “crackle” as it cools. Release cake from pan when it is fully cooled. If you prefer a cold dessert, chill cake in the refrigerator overnight.
Raspberry Coulis
- Combine raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a food processor and puree ingredients together.
- Strain mixture into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve, pressing down on the solid ingredients and agitating the mixture to extract as much syrupy juice as possible.
- Dispose of the solids. The syrup is your coulis.Store coulis in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
To Serve
- Before serving, garnish your cake with powdered sugar, fresh raspberries, and mint leaves.
- Use a long sharp knife to cut the cake. Place each slice on a dessert plate drizzled with raspberry coulis, garnished with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.
Nutrition
Huge success! This was a hit at the seder tonight and was the star of the show. I think getting the egg whites whipped just right really contributes to the final product. Everyone loved it. Looking forward to making it again (any time of year).
So glad Hannah! And yes, I agree — the egg whites are key!
can you use matzoh cake meal instead of the almond flour?
I have not tested the recipe this way, so unfortunately I cannot give you an accurate recommendation on this.
I baked this yesterday and used the suggestion for doneness as 200 internal temperature. Despite cooking an extra 20 minutes, my cake never reached that temperature. Then it was overcooked. The coulis was delicious 🙂
Hi Nancy! Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Did you use the pan size specified? Did you adjust the proportions of the recipe at all? Are you at altitude? Just trying to troubleshoot, as I’ve never had issues with this cake in the past.
This looks divine, and I’d like to bring it for dessert to our friend’s seder this year. Do you know the approximate chocolate percentage of the “bittersweet” chocolate you use? Thank you!
hi – this looks delicious! can I freeze it and if so how should I defrost it? thx!
Excited about making this… Can I make it 2 weeks in advance and freeze it (much to do too little time!
Also I have roasted almonds can I use them for the almond meal or should I go buy raw ones?
thanks in advance!
Hello,
Can this cake be frozen?
I really liked this recipe. I’d like to make it again but I’m not currently able to reintegrate eggs to my diet for a while, likely long past Pesach ‘24 even sadly. I saw your post on a vegan egg substitute though. However. This recipe uses egg and egg white separately. So if I use the egg substitute recipe you put up should I treat them all like egg whites and beat them to incorporate air? Or should I treat half like egg yolk and half like egg white? Or something else? Thanks for any help!
Great question! I would use the chickpea liquid substitute (unless avoiding kitniyot for Passover). Add half of the liquid to the sugar, and whip the other half like you would egg whites. I hope that makes sense!
How long is this safe on the counter? I made it today and it was delicious. It did take a while to cool and it was out for about 4.5 hours. Stored it in the fridge after serving…is that okay or should it be immediately put in the fridge once brought to room temp?
Flavor is great but seems like it is not cooked all the way thru but the toothpick came out clean 3x. As well there was cracking around the edges. What did I do wrong 😑
Hmm, hard to know without being in the kitchen with you what might have gone wrong. It is a moist cake – as long as it came to 200 degrees F internal temperature, it is cooked through. But hard to know that after the fact. I’ll add that note to the recipe instructions.
This is one of the best Passover Chocolate cakes. It’s has a strong chocolate flavor, while being delicately light (and the almond base is just right).
Huge success! Excellent recipe, not much trouble with storage because barely left any:-)
I was very grateful you mentioned the crackling top because it certainly did so I just gently pressed on the top everywhere and cracked it so it was leveled, dusted with powdered sugar and it became really beautiful. Thank you very much for this excellent recipe!
So happy you enjoyed it! Yes, the crackling is part of the charm on this one. 🙂
I made this last night and people couldn’t praise it enough. Used semisweet because I didn’t have bittersweet. Really delicious.
A littler flourless chocolate cake sounds really nice, especially one made with almond flour.
How long can this cake be kept at room temperature? If it needs to be refrigerated, how far in advance can I make it? I’d like to make it 2 days before the seder. Thanks!
Hi Francie, this can be stored for up to 3 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container, separate from the coulis. I do not recommend dusting it with powdered sugar/decorating until just before serving.