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.
Renee says
Have you tried subbing chestnut flour for almond flour in any of your recipes, or do you have any recipes you can recommend using chestnut flour?
Erica says
Hi Elana,
Your recipe calls for “honey” does it make a difference if it is raw honey or not?
Thanks so much!
Dawn says
Hi Elana,
I have noticed in a lot of the dessert recipes, they call for almond flour. Do you know if there is a good substitute for it? My daughter is allergic to tree nuts and I’d hate to make a few of the desserts with a substitute flour if you already know of one that will work.
Thank you!!
Bonnie Hausman says
Did you get an answer? I also need a substitute for almond flour because of but allergy. Must be kosher and pareve (non dairy).
Elana says
Hi Dawn and Bonnie, I haven’t tried making this recipe without almond flour. If you can’t have nuts, you might like to take a look at my Nut-Free Recipes page:
https://elanaspantry.com/diets/nut-free/
Enjoy!
Elana
Bonnie says
Because if but allergy also, I am using coconut flour. We will see!
DD says
I followed the recipe to the tee. Not sure what happened tho. It didnt rise much at all. The pan was an 8″springform. It was like 1 inch tall and the texture was not like the picture at all. That pic was amazing Elana! Flavor was good but it didnt present well at all. Didnt get to serve it to my company :( Any suggestions?
Melissa says
I have this in the oven right now–if the batter is any indication, wow! It was delicious :)
Becky In Maryland says
Making this for the second time today. It is now my favorite chocolate desert. It’s easy and gets rave reviews. Thank you as always.
Jeny says
Oh and I forgot to mention my second modification — I omitted the orange. Just ‘cuz I personally don’t love the orange-chocolate combination. And I can tell you that on its own, the chocolate in this torte shines!
Gilda J. says
I have a bit of that problem too, and today I grated a small apple into the dough, and it came out SUPER!!! Worth a try. :)
Jeny says
Hello :) I want to start by expressing my gratitude for your generosity in sharing so many recipes and life experiences. It is truly inspiring and we are lucky to have you!
Just made this cake with a few slight mods and if you’re interested in the results here’s what I got.
I didn’t have agave or honey so (she says sheepishly) I substituted an equal amount of sugar, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The batter was so yummy I had to restrain myself from drinking it. I somehow managed.
I was a little skeptical that a 10″ pan was the right size; it seemed too large considering the height of the piece in the picture and the amount of batter (ok so I ate some batter… but not enough to make that much of a difference in volume). But I figured well Elana must have some reason for recommending a 10″ so that’s what I used. The result was in fact very thin, but also dense and rich, leaving me wondering if it would not cook properly if made in a smaller pan. After I devour the cake on my counter I will play around with other sizes of cake pans.
The surface of the cake is slightly crunchy and is a nice counterbalance to texture of the rich moist cake body underneath. There was a unique taste alongside the familiar chocolate, though less prominent after baking. As a newcomer to this kind of cooking, I’m going to guess this is the grapeseed oil. It’s really interesting and I love it.
I would eat this in a box or with a fox or on a train or in the rain. Thank you Elana!
Ebba K says
Does anyone know the nutritional facts on this one? Sounds delish!
Ashley says
I recently heard you say on the PMR podcast that you no longer use grapeseed oil or agave nectar, have you made substitutes to this recipe since?
Thank you,
Ashley