Gluten Free Chocolate Ricotta Cake

Thank you Jamie for this wonderful chocolate cake recipe! It’s rich and heavy with a lovely hint of cinnamon.

I had made paneer cheese on Saturday fully intending to turn it into a curry for our monthly curry club that evening but having class that same day I ran out of time so Sunday I needed to find a recipe for paneer or ricotta. For those who do not know, paneer is made the same way as ricotta but it is pressed to remove more whey turning it into a soft cheese block. All I needed to do was blend it up and make it into a smooth cheese.

It’s a really easy recipe but I have changed the method slightly to make it easier to work with the melted chocolate. The original recipe I found firmed up quickly before all the egg white could be added so I am recommending using a ban marie to keep the mixture warm to prevent this.

Ingredients

• 500g Ricotta
• Zest of 2 limes
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 300g castor sugar
• 250g ground almonds
• 250g chocolate, 70%, chopped
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• icing sugar and crushed pistachio nuts to decorate

Method

1. Pre heat oven 180C. Grease & flour a 24cm spring form cake tin.
2. Boil a pan of water and sit a large bowl on top of it (big enough for all ingredients). Turn the heat off.
3. Place chocolate in the bowl over the pan and allow it to melt.
4. Add the ricotta, zest, sugar, ground almonds, cinnamon & vanilla seeds to the melted chocolate and combine.
5. Add the egg yolks and combine.
6. In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites till soft peak consistency.
7. Remove the chocolate bowl from the hot pan. Add the egg whites to the mixture and gently fold through until completely combined retaining as much air as possible.
8. Spoon batter into cake tin and smooth top.
9. Bake for 45 minutes, then allow to cool in tin before removing.
10. To serve, dust with pistachio and icing sugar. Goes well with unsweetened Greek yoghurt.