This gluten free Double Chocolate Orange Torte will make a nice treat for Passover, which is rapidly approaching! My family, however, needed no holiday or excuse to devour the entire cake on a Sunday afternoon. This treat is easy to make and even easier to eat. Go ahead, try some and see for yourself.
Double Chocolate Orange Torte
Ingredients
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup agave nectar or honey
- ½ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place ½ cup chocolate chips in a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground to the texture of gravel
- Pulse in almond flour, cacao powder and salt and process until well combined, about 10 seconds
- Add eggs to food processor and pulse again, then add in agave, grapeseed oil and orange zest
- Pulse all ingredients together until smooth
- Remove "bowl" from food processor and stir in second ½ cup of chocolate chips using a spoon or spatula
- Transfer batter into a well oiled 8 inch springform pan
- Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
I adapted this torte recipe from a site called Mandelininc.com which has yummy ideas for almond flour goodies. The recipe I based mine on is called Chocolate Citrus Almond Torte.
Finally, I just wanted to share some disturbing information that I garnered from an article in this Sunday’s New York Times. Nicholas D. Kristof wrote a very informative piece on the use of antibiotics in factory farming. According to his article we, “need to curb the way modern agribusiness madly overuses antibiotics, leaving them ineffective for sick humans.”
Did you know that 70% of the antibiotics used in this country are administered to healthy farm animals. Why is this done? It helps the animals grow faster and bulk up, making them, of course, more valuable. Meat is sold by the pound –think quantity, not quality.
The danger of this practice? With antibiotics so prevalent, new “super bugs” are developing that are resistant to all existing anti-biotics. According to Kristof, more than 18,000 people are dying each year from these new strains of disease that are now untreatable with even the most powerful antibiotics. Pretty scary to think that after close to a century of antibiotic use we could slip back into a world where bacterial diseases (such as tuberculosis) are untreatable and ravage our population on a large scale as they once did.
What can we do? First, if you can avoid all animal products from CAFO farms (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). These types of farms crowd animals into unsanitary conditions, creating infection and of course increasing the need for the administration of prophylactic antibiotics. If you can, purchase organic meats/eggs/dairy from a farmer/rancher in your area (grass fed meat is actually best, however, that’s another story altogether).
And for all you vegans out there –kudos for not supporting the animal product industry in any way, however, these antibiotic resistant infections are contagious to everyone. They originate in a farm and can mutate to our bodies in many ways, not just by eating meat.
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I am hardly an expert on this issue, nor do I claim to be. So please, those of you that have more information, leave a comment and let’s figure out what else we can do to change this frightening trend.
Nicole Kavanagh says
I have 2 of your cookbooks and sometimes I forget how many wonderful recipes are here! I just looked through my books to find this recipe but then remembered it’s on this site. This is how I found you years ago and I still love the simplicity and elegance of your recipes. I’ve gone from grain free to paleo to back to eating some gluten (I am not celiac) but I still come to you for wonderful treats. Thanks so much for generously sharing your recipes for so many years. You’re a classic in every way! ❤️
Elana says
Nicole, thank you for your amazing, fantastic comment! Sending you big hugs :-)
Lisa says
Greetings Elana
There are a number of recipes I like to make when I have organic oranges. This is one of them and another is the orange cake. I enjoy both the flavor and fragrance of the oranges.
Interesting to note, I use maple syrup and it works fine.
Yum!
Elana says
Lisa, thanks for your wonderful comment I’m so glad you are enjoying my cake recipes that use oranges. Here’s that link for other readers:
https://elanaspantry.com/orange-cake/
Have an amazing day!
Elana
Laura says
What an absolutely amazing recipe. Used an 8 inch tart pan rather than a spring form pan. The finished product may be a little less dense than the presentation picture. Used jumbo eggs rather than large.
This recipe is going to be added to the list of company suitable desserts.
Thank you for so generously sharing your recipes.
Elana says
Laura, thanks so much for letting me know that this is an absolutely amazing recipe!
Maggie says
This is a delicious recipe! I only had semi-sweet here at home, so used only about 5 tablespoons of agave instead, because more would have been too sweet. I also doubled the recipe because I am feeding a lot of people tonight. The tortes turned out perfectly and can be eaten alone or topped with things like berries, chocolate buttercream and ganache (spelling?) Thanks for this post!
Elana says
Maggie, you’re welcome! So glad this was delicious :-)
Tiina says
Perfect timing for tweeting this out. I’ll make them for my son and his lovie on Sunday. I like it when you tweet older-but-still-goodie recipes. Reminds me how much I love your site.
Elana says
Tina, that is so sweet. I’m glad to hear you love my site :-)
Eden Passante says
This looks so rich and delicious! Love chocolate and orange together!
Elana says
Me too Eden!
chaya says
hi,
if i halve this recipe to make a smaller cake, will it work? i basically need it for one person
Michelle says
I love orange and dark chocolate! Plan to try this very soon, Thank you!
On the subject of antibiotics…first you must know my background against the overuse of them as well as my stance against GMOs which is all intertwined. Also my husband and I along with our 3 children own a commercial poultry farm. We raise 160,000 birds per flock and sell to companies such as Chick-Fil-A. Much research went into our decision to raise “non-organic” birds which went against everything I thought I knew! Our birds live in heat/air conditioned houses with feed and water that is kept away from contamination and always available. The stories you hear about how they are not able to follow a normal 24 hr day are hogwash. They are up in the am and sleep at night. They sleep and eat and drink at leisure. They have dry rice hulls as bedding that we spend $10k per flock to change out! We actually sit down with them and scratch their bellies and hand feed them often. There are SO many misconceptions!!! They are given ONE dose of antibiotic drops in their eyes when they hatch. This helps prevent normal poultry diseases from spreading much like we are given shots as children. This is completely out of their system before slaughter. The so called organic or “green” chickens are raised in the same houses with one open pen so they can be called “free range”. When they get sick they are given nothing. The grower hopes only a few hundred will die before he can sell them .
If you can support a local farmer or grow your own meat then that to me is ideal. Just please know that everything you read and the labels that are slapped on so many expensive products are often just there to make more money. Don’t allow yourself to be deceived.
Here’s to knowledge! Thank you!
Jenny says
Thank you for this info Michelle. I appreciate your honesty and care that farmers like you take with what I consider to be an essential part of our diet. If there were less judgement in the world and more self regulation we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Awareness is essential so that choices that align with our soul and bodily needs are met and thank you for speaking up. Not an easy thing in today’s world with so much judgement.
Gilda J. says
Wonderful recipe! Thank you. :)
Today, though, I didn’t have oranges at home, and I thought of grating a small apple into the batter. It turned out lighter and more moist, and just great!!! So I’ll do both versions from now on. :)
Nan says
Made this for a holiday gathering and it was a big hit.