A Flourless Chocolate Torte

And another recipe for almond milk

It’s so nice being here, sharing words, thoughts, and (finally!) another recipe with you all. The last few months threw the curveball of a rather debilitating auto-immune flareup my way. I’m okay, but was knocked off course of the usual programming of life. I’ve been indulging in rest, lots of vegetables, and a general lack of urgency - and want to express my gratitude for all of you sticking around through the radio silence. I have been patiently finding my footing (quite literally), and am looking forward to a cozy winter of cooking, creating, and sharing recipes in good health!

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In efforts to tame the flame of the aforementioned health hiccup, I’ve been precariously tip-toeing around any ingredients that fall into the grey space of being potentially inflammatory (read: gluten, refined sugar, nightshades, dairy, anything overly processed, and so on). As a rebellious person with a general disdain for restriction, my immediate instinct when told no is to crave the exact thing I can’t have - which in this specific instance, has been cake.

Days, then weeks, and now months of eating gluts of greens, bone broth, and deep water fish left a gaping hole of desire for the dense, sweet, fudgey nature of a really good chocolate cake. I largely ignored the craving, housing 100% cacao squares of chocolate as a salve, until an afternoon of flipping through the River Cafe Cookbook’s dessert chapter induced an aha moment. I’d been making lots of almond milk, an indulgent ritual I wasn’t quite sure to be worth the effort. Homemade almond milk is more lush and notably more delicious than its grocery store counterpart, but also leaves you with an impossible amount of residual pulp. Finding clever ways to utilize the pulp has always felt like a burdensome task that would eventually lead to inevitability of waste. Now back to that aha moment - The River Cafe’s recipe for chocolate torte relies on ground almonds, so I figured why not give the recipe a go using the spent almond pulp I’d been collecting in the back of the fridge.

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A Flourless Chocolate Torte

I made a few more tweaks: substituting the cane sugar for maple sugar, and adding a few aromatic spices to the mix. The resulting cake was lovely - rich, incredibly moist, and just decadent enough. It’s the type of cake that feels just as appropriate to eat for breakfast as it does dessert. It also makes the process of making almond milk feel much more worthwhile; the incentive is twofold, providing an inbuilt plan to mitigate waste, alongside the pleasure of eating chocolate cake with a glass of milk. The torte is delicious on its own, but begs for a pool of soft whipped cream (or, of course, a glass of chilled almond milk) to accompany.