Chocolate, Chestnut and Amaretti Cake - Gluten Free

All four members of our family went to the gym and did a Spin Fit session. It's our first gym class together as a family. Now that our youngest can reach the pedals on the bikes, we are good to go. We celebrated the occasion with cake of course. A family that sweats together, sweets together.



Chocolate, Chestnut and Amaretti Cake - Gluten Free
adapted from here

165g (6 oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped
110g (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus a little extra for greasing the pan
75g (1/3 cup) unsweetened chestnut puree
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
4 egg, separated
100g (1/2 cup) panela sugar (or your favourite natural sugar ie. coconut sugar, rapadura etc)
50g (1/2 cup) brown rice flour
60g (1/2 cup) millet meal
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 amaretti cookies, crushed

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Line the bottom of a 20cm (8 inch) round springform cake pan with baking paper and grease the sides of the pan with soft butter, Set aside.

If you are using panela sugar or any course grain sugar, put it in a food processor and blitz until it is a fine powder. Tip it into a large bowl and set aside.

Put the chocolate, butter, chestnut puree and seeds from the vanilla bean into a heat-proof bowl. Suspend the bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt, stirring until smooth, Don't let the bowl tough the water. Remove it from the heat and let it cool for about 6 - 7 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks and half of the sugar together until thoroughly combined. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and stir until incorporated. Fold in the brown rice flour, millet meal and salt.

In another bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the remaining sugar, a spoonful at a time, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Fold a third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Once incorporated, add another third of the egg whites and fold again. Add the final third of egg whites and fold gently until there are no streaks of meringue. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with crushed amaretti.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. The centre of the cake will still be slightly moist and brownie-like. Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before releasing from the pan and leaving to cool on a wire rack.