A light and creamy cheese cake made with ricotta cheese, dark chocolate and almonds. This cake is gluten-free.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr
Course: Brunch, Cake, Dessert
Cuisine: Gluten-free
Servings: 10
Author: Trish Cowper | www.infinebalance.com
Ingredients
for preparing the cake pan:
softened butter or cooking spray for greasing the pan
1tablespooncocoa powder for dusting the panapproximate
for the cake:
5tablespoonsbutter
4ozdark chocolateminimum 50% cocoa
1454g container ricotta cheese
2large eggs
1large egg yolk
¾cupswhite sugar
2cupsground almonds
1tablspoon baking powder
¼cuproughly chopped whole almonds
1tablespooncocoa powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9" spring form pan with cooking spray, or lightly butter inside of pan. Using a very fine mesh seive, dust pan with 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder. Turn pan upside down and tap to remove excess. Set aside.
In a small sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate on low heat. Stir constantly and remove from heat as soon as most of the chocolate is melted. Continue to stir until chocolate and butter mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
In the bowl of standmixer, or a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, beat ricotta, eggs, egg yolk and sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes. Mix in cooled, melted chocolate and butter.
In a medium bowl, mix together ground almonds and baking powder.
While running standmixer on low speed, or stiring gently by hand with a rubber spatula, gradually add almond mixture to the cheese and chocolate mixture.
Spread batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle with chopped almonds and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cake will crack on top and will spring back when you lighly press the top when done. Top will form a crust. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack. To serve: unmold cake and sprinkle with remaining cocoa powder. Serve warm or cold. Can be made a day ahead. Refridgerate once cooled if not serving immediately.