Flourless Chocolate Cake

Yum

Here’s a rich-tasting chocolate cake with a short and mostly wholesome ingredient list that will satisfy your chocolate craving. This cake is made without refined flour and is much lower in calories and fat than traditional cakes, but trust me, it is really quite delicious. Chickpeas are a curious cake ingredient, but they work wonderfully, and I doubt anyone could guess that this legume is responsible for the fudgy dense texture. For an extra chocolaty cake, add 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips to the batter.

Ingredients

1. 5 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (one 15-oz. can, rinsed and drained)
1 orange (zest and 1/3 cup juice)
4 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an 8- or 9-inch cake pan and set aside. (I had bad luck last time I made this and it stuck to the pan, so you might want to add parchment paper to the bottom of the pan, or try this tip).
Wash and zest the orange (see these tips), and cut in half to extract 1/3 cup juice (grip the orange half tightly and squeeze it by hand, you can use a fork to coax more juice out).
In a food processor, process chickpeas, orange zest, and orange juice. Add eggs, one at a time, pulsing after each addition.
Add the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and pulse until just blended. The batter will be very liquid.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool on a rack for 15 minutes. (Trouble getting cake out of the pan? Try this). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serving Suggestion

Serve with orange slices on the side, and consider topping with berries or yogurt. You can also drizzle the cake with a simple chocolate glaze.

Nutrition Notes

Chickpeas are a great source of fiber and protein and B-vitamins. They are also rich in important minerals, including iron, phosphorous, magnesium, manganese, potassium, copper, calcium, and zinc.

Orange zest adds great taste, but the benefits of citrus peel go beyond flavour: zest is loaded with d-limonene, which might protect against a variety of cancers. Laboratory studies suggest that d-limonene reduces not only the incidence and size of tumors at several sites, but also the growth of various tumor cells. Consuming citrus peel may reduce the risk of skin cancer by 30%, according to other research.