“Forget love, I’d rather fall in chocolate”
Ohhh chocolate. We have had a long, long love affair haven’t we? Confession: I am a chocoholic. Not suprised? Neither am I.
Fact : Chocolate causes certain endocrine glands to secrete hormones that affect your feelings and behavior by making you happy. Therefore, it counteracts depression, in turn reducing the stress of depression. Your stress-free life helps you maintain a youthful disposition, both physically and mentally. (Ok so maybe it isn’t iron clad science, but would I really take my chances?) Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and while other things are just food, chocolate is chocolate. I think you get the picture now…
This might be my second favorite chocolate recipe thus far (1st place still holding strong goes to my Dark Chocolate Truffle Tart
) During my daily food blog and recipe browsing, I came across a recipe for “Deep Chocolate Sour Cream Cake”. I immediately clicked the link, already drooling before I even read the post. “Yea this is a winner” I told myself. I logged the recipe into my archives as usual and continued browsing. Yesterday I revisited the recipe and tried to figure out how I could modify it, and hopefully improve it
I mean, if I am in the culinary capital of the world, I am going to relish in the fact that I can find quality ingredients everywhere!
I decided to instead use a crème fraîche, substituted some of the flour for almond flour and made a few other modifications. Almond flour is just almonds that have been ground to the point where it slightly resembles sand. It is commonly used when making Financiers, for example. If you cant find this at a local store, you can by whole almonds (without the skin) and put the in a food processor or blender until ground as fine as possible. Plus, almonds and chocolate go great together.
This recipe is definitely one for chocolate lovers and will bring out the gourmande in anybody. Enjoy! (Like I need to say that…)
Chocolate Almond Crème Fraîche Cake
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of flour
1/2 cup of almond flour
1 cup of Dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups of butter (3 sticks or 340g)
2 cups of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla extract
1 cup of crème fraîche
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Grease the inside of a cake pan (10″ round or a small square/rectangle pan).
In a large bowl combine flour, almond powder, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl beat butter until creamy with an electric mixer. Gradually add sugars and beat until well blended. At medium speed, beat in eggs one at a time until all well blended. Don’t forget to scrape down the sides!
In a small bowl, combine vanilla and crème fraîche. Add to butter mixture until well combined.
Add flour mixture in batches to butter mixture at low speed until just combined.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 – 15 minutes. Let cake cool in pan 15-20 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm or let cool completely. (I can never wait!)
Cut into slices and serve dusted with cocoa powder. (You could also serve with vanilla ice cream, crème anglaise, whipped cream, or whatever you desire! Make up your own
)
Bon Ap!
Julie.































