These flourless cookies are probably the easiest thing I have ever made. It's one of those mix-everything-in-a-bowl type recipe. These cookies are amazingly good for something that requires so little effort. They are crisp around the edges and chewy in the middle. I love the classic combination of hazelnut and chocolate which always reminds me of nutella. I added a touch of salt in and on these cookies because I believe that the salt brings these cookies to another level. The salt is totally optional though if you are not a fan of sweet and salty.

I can't take credit for this recipe of course. It's a Donna Hay recipe which was featured in a weekend paper (Sunday Times?) a couple of weeks ago. I was curious, and I had all the ingredients in my pantry. I'm glad that I tried it because this recipe is definitely a keeper.



Hazelnut and Chocolate Chips Flourless Cookies

Makes about 12

175grams (1 3/4 cup) hazelnut meal (ground hazelnut)
40grams (1/4 cup) cornflour
110grams (1/2 cup) caster sugar
60grams (1/3 cup) brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)
100g unsalted butter, melted and allow to cool slightly
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150grams dark chocolate chips
Flake sea salt to sprinkle

To make Hazelnut and Chocolate Chips Flourless Cookies:

Preheat oven to 180C conventional (or 160C fan forced).

Place the hazelnut meal, cornflour, caster sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine.

Add butter, egg and vanilla extract and mix well to combine.

Stir through the chocolate chips.

Roll 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball. Repeat with remaining dough.

Place the balls on baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, leaving 8cm between each ball to allow room for spreading.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly on trays before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle a small amount of flake sea salt over cookies while still warm.

I have this recipe for many years, way before gluten-free is “trendy” and few knew what coeliac disease is.

This flourless orange and almond cake remains one of my favourites all these years. It’s wonderfully light and refreshing, and simply melts-in-your-mouth. It doesn’t require many ingredients which is always a bonus. And it’s so easy to make that I’m almost tempted to say that it’s fail-proof. The only downside to this recipe is that it’s time-consuming because you need to simmer the oranges for at least an hour.

Sometimes, I would add a tablespoon of orange liqueur (e.g. Cointreau) to make this cake just that little bit special. For those who like frosting on their cakes, cream cheese frosting with finely grated orange zest will go well with this cake. Today though, I opt for a light brush of warmed orange marmalade over the top of the cake and decorate it with candied orange slices. Of course, this cake will just be as good on its own. Oh, this can be made into cupcakes too, just so you know.

This cake is best serve chilled and a day after it’s made. The flavour and texture of this cake will be so much better after a day or two of rest.



Flourless Orange and Almond Cake

Makes 22cm diameter cake

Flourless Orange and Almond Cake
2 medium size oranges (about 240g each), unpeeled
6 eggs
180 grams (1 cup) caster sugar
250 grams (2 1/2 cups) almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons orange marmalade (optional)

To make cake:
Place whole unpeeled oranges in saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to the boil. Once the water starts to boil, drain water, cover oranges with fresh water, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour or until the oranges are soft. Remove oranges and allow to cool. Discard cooking liquid.

Once the oranges are completely cooled, preheat oven to 180C conventional (or 160C fan-forced). Line base and side of a 22cm diameter round cake tin with baking paper.

Trim and discard ends from oranges, quarter the oranges, then remove any seeds. Process oranges in a food processor until smooth.

Whisk eggs and sugar in bowl of electric mixer, on high speed, until thick and pale in colour. Reduce speed of mixer, gradually add orange puree, pouring it down the side of the bowl so not to deflate the eggs mixture, until just combined. Add mixture of almond meal and baking powder in 3 batches, along the side of the bowl, whisk until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared tin.

Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely in cake tin, then refrigerate, preferably overnight. Before serving, warm orange marmalade in the microwave for one minute, brush marmalade over cake. Top with candied orange slices.

Candied Orange Slices
1 medium size orange, thinly sliced
250 grams caster sugar
300ml water

To make candied orange slices:
Place orange slices in a small saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to the boil. Once the water starts to boil, drain and discard liquid.

Combine sugar and 300ml water in a saucepan, bring to boil. Once the sugar is completely dissolve and the syrup starts to boil, reduce heat to the lowest possible heat with just barely a bubble breaking the surface. Return the drained orange slices to the barely simmering sugar syrup, cook for about 1 hour or until the zest is transparent and glossy. Cool in the syrup before using, or refrigerate (with the orange slices still in the syrup) until ready to use.

The first thing J said when he saw the cake was, "It's not Christmas yet."

Well, Mr Smarty Pants, have you not heard of Christmas in July?

Okay, so it's August now (What?!? It's August already?). And the cake does look surprising festive. But who's to say we can't have a festive cake whenever we want.

This entremet comprises of 5 components; flourless chocolate sponge, kirsch morello cherry syrup, chantilly cream dotted with morello cherries, chocolate mousse and cherry glaze. It’s not as difficult as it looks or sound. And it’s not as time consuming as most of the entremets that I have made so far. It’s probably as easy as making a traditional black forest cake. Maybe.

I might add some gelatin to the chantilly cream next time I make this. The cream is a tad too soft to neatly hold up the weight of the sponge, mousse, glaze and decoration on top.

Note that the chocolate sponge is very delicate and will fall apart if you are not careful handling it. And although you don’t have to freeze the cake overnight, I do highly recommend doing so, as the glaze will set a lot faster, you will get a neater cut and also the cream will hold up a lot better.





Flourless Black Forest Entremet

Makes 7"x7" cake

Flourless Chocolate Sponge Cake
250 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
60 grams unsalted butter, cube
250 grams eggwhite (about 6)
80 grams caster sugar
60 grams egg yolk (about 3)

To make flourless chocolate sponge cake:
Preheat oven to 180C conventional (or 160C fan-forced). Line 2 numbers of 30x20cm cake pans with baking paper.

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, set aside to cool slightly while you work on the rest of the ingredient.

In a clean bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk eggwhite until foamy. Sprinkle in 60 grams sugar and whisk until soft peaks. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk egg yolks and remaining 20 grams sugar until pale and creamy.

Add one-third of whipped eggwhite and all of the egg yolk mixture to the slightly cooled melted chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the ingredients together thoroughly. Gently fold in the remaining whipped eggwhite.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Using a palette knife, spread the batter to an even thickness. Baked for 8-10 minutes or until springy to the touch. Turn sponge straight from oven onto a sheet of baking paper. Peel off baking paper from the bottom of the sponge. Cover with baking paper, then a tea towel. Set aside to cool completely.

Kirsch and Morello Cherries Syrup
150ml juice or syrup reserved from jar of morello cherries
50 grams caster sugar
2 tablespoon kirsch

To make kirsch and morello cherries syrup:
Combine juice/syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stir, over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Allow to boil for 5 seconds. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Add kirsch and stir to combine.

Chantilly Cream
400ml heavy cream, cold
40 grams caster sugar

To make chantilly cream:
Whip cream and sugar using an electric mixer until cream holds firm peaks.

To assemble (1):
You will also need about 400 grams morello cherries.

Trim flourless chocolate sponge cakes to fit a 7"x7" square cake ring.

Line cookie tray (or any rectangular baking tray) with baking paper. Place a 7"x7" square cake ring on top. Place a trimmed cake layer in the cake ring. Brush cake generously with syrup. Pipe or spoon half of the chantilly cream over. Place morello cherries over cream, roughly 2.5cm apart, stagger the lines. Pipe or spoon remaining chantilly cream. Brush second cake layer generously with syrup, place cake syrup side down on top of cream, press down lightly, brush cake layer with syrup. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate while you work on the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
225ml heavy cream, cold
125 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 egg yolk
25 grams caster sugar

To make chocolate mousse:
Whisk cream using electric mixer until it holds firm peaks. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk egg yolk and sugar (I use hand whisk for this) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water until the mixture reaches the ribbon stage, and is pale and creamy.

Using a spatula, fold whipped cream into the egg yolk mixture until combine. Fold one-third of the mixture into the cooled melted chocolate until well combine. Gently fold in remaining of the cream and yolk mixture into the melted chocolate until well combine.

Spread chocolate mousse evenly over assembled cake. Cover with cling wrap and freeze cake overnight.

Cherry Glaze
200 grams cherries (if use frozen cherries, allow to thaw.)
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon glucose syrup
2 sheets (6 grams) titanium grade gelatin

To make cherry glaze:
Puree the cherries in a blender or food processor. Strain the puree through a sieve into a bowl, pressing down with the back of a spoon and discarding the solids.

Soften the gelatin in a bowl of cold water.

Place 100 grams of the cherry puree juice, caster sugar and glucose syrup in a saucepan, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sugar and glucose dissolves. Remove from heat. (Do not let the mixture boil. It should be warm but not hot.)

Squeeze excess water from the gelatin. Stir gelatin into the warm cherry mixture.

Allow glaze to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Pour glaze over frozen cake. Return cake to fridge for 10 minutes or until glaze set completely. Remove cake from cake ring. Trim and cut the cake while it’s still frozen to get a neat finish. Remember to allow the cake to thaw completely before serving. This will take about 20 minutes at room temperature or 2 hours in the fridge.

To decorate, you will need:
150 grams heavy cream, cold
100 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped

You can cut the cake to whatever size you like. I prefer a generous 3x12cm slices, which I get about 5 slices of that size out of the cake, which also means that there will be some wastage (or aka chef’s treat).

Whisk cream until it holds firm peak. Fill piping bag fitted with a medium size petal decorating tip, and pipe cream over cake in a zigzag motion.

To make trees, melt chocolate either over a saucepan of barely simmering water or in the microwave, and pour melted chocolate into a piping bag. I didn’t bother to tamper the chocolate for this job. Snip off a small hole from the piping bag, and pipe onto a baking paper. Allow the chocolate trees to set completely before you peel it off from the baking paper.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Imagine this; a coconut cake soaked in lime-lemon syrup and covered in a blanket of fluffy meringue frosting. It's coconut-y and sharply refreshing. Flavours that I find instantly evoke summer.

This is a gorgeous cake. It’s dense (in a good way), moist, and the desiccated coconut gives the cake a nice texture.

The cake is gluten free too, if you use gluten free baking powder which you can find in any supermarket these days. The coconut flour might be a little tricky to find though. I got mine from the health food store.

The meringue frosting is optional. The cake will taste just as good without. Having said that, the toasted meringue frosting plays the perfect accompaniment to the cake. It dresses up the cake and the toasted marshmallow-like meringue frosting is delicious. There are several different methods to making meringue frosting. I like the Italian meringue method which requires pouring hot sugar syrup while beating the egg whites to stiff peak. This method lightly cooks the egg whites. If you are not squeamish about raw eggs, then skip this step, and beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff peak.

Make the cake the day before to allow time for the cake to soak in the syrup, and make the meringue frosting just before serving. This cake is best serve cold and keeps well in the fridge for several days.


Lime-Lemon Syrup Coconut Cake with Toasted Meringue Frosting (Gluten Free)
(Adapted from Everyday Gourmet)

Makes 20cm diameter cake

Note: Measuring cups and spoons for this recipe are based on Australian measurements; 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. I have not tested this recipe using volume measurement (i.e. cups and spoons). Therefore if there is any error in the conversion, please let me know.

Coconut Cake
150 grams unsalted butter, chopped and softened
150 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
140 grams (1 1/4 cups) coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
150 grams (1 3/4 cups) desiccated coconut
430ml (1 3/4 cups) buttermilk, room temperature

Lime-Lemon Syrup
200 grams (1 cup) caster sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 lime
125ml (1/2 cup) water

Meringue Frosting
100 grams (1/2 cup) caster sugar
40ml (2 tablespoons) water
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt

To make coconut cake:
Preheat the oven to 175 degree celcius (or 160 degree celcius fan-forced). Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric beaters until pale and fluffy (the sugar needs to dissolve and the mixture should be very creamy). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift the coconut flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and mix in the desiccated coconut with a whisk. Fold the coconut mixture and the buttermilk into the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, or until firm on top. Cool in the tin on a wire rack while you make the lime-lemon syrup.

To make lime-lemon syrup:
Place all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium–low and simmer for 10–15 minutes without stirring.

Pour one third of the syrup over the cake in the tin. After 5 minutes pour over another third of the syrup. If your cake still needs more liquid, after a further 5 minutes, pour over the remaining syrup being careful not to add more than it can absorb. Set the cake aside, refrigerated, for at least 3 hours or overnight.

To make toasted meringue frosting:
Put the sugar into a pan with water and place on a high heat. Bring to the soft-ball stage (115 degree celcius on a sugar thermometer) which will take about 10 minutes.

While waiting for the sugar syrup, start whisking the egg whites with pinch of salt in an electric stand mixer. Whisk until a light froth forms, stopping before any soft peaks can be formed. Once the sugar syrup has reached the soft-ball stage, beat the egg whites at the same time on high speed while pouring the syrup onto them in a thin stream. (Don’t pour the syrup over the whisk, but down the side of the bowl.) Continue to whisk for 10 minutes or until the egg whites are glossy and stiff.

Using a palette knife or spoon, spread the frosting over the cake to create peaks all over the top. Use blowtorch to brown. (Or place under a very hot grill for a couple of minutes. However you won't get the same effect as blowtorch.)

This is a light lemony flourless cake that will be perfect on a beautiful summer/spring afternoon (although it’s winter in Australia now). The cake reminds me a little bit like friands; moist and almondy. I like this cake the next day, after it’s completely chilled, and the flavour and texture seems to get better with time.

This cake is on the sweet side, so I would recommend reducing the sugar (probably down to 200 grams) if you don’t like your cake overly sweet.



Update: I’ve received several requests to provide a volume measurement for this recipe. I’ve been reluctant to do so because I’m one of those bakers who like to methodically measure out each ingredient by weight. I feel that it’s the only reliable way to get a consistent result. But hey, that’s just me. Anyway, I have updated the recipe with volume measurement as requested. I understand that Australian measuring cups and spoons may vary slightly from American. So, just a note that I have provided American cups conversion here. Please let me know if there is any mistake in the conversion.

Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Flourless Cake
(Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Winter June-July 2013)

120 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
275 grams (1 1/3 cups) caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1/4 cup lemon zest
4 eggs, separated and at room temperature
240 grams (2 1/2 cups) almond meal
300 grams (10 1/2 oz) ricotta
Flaked almonds, to decorated
Icing sugar, for dusting

Heat oven to 160 degree celcius fan-force (325 degree fahrenheit fan-forced). Line the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper and set aside.

Place the butter, 165 grams caster sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon zest in an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until pale and creamy. Scrap down the sides of the bowl, then gradually add the egg yolks, one at a time, continuing to beat until fully combined. Add the almond meal and beat to combine. Fold ricotta through the almond meal mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl with a hand-held electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar to the egg whites mixture and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gently fold a third of the egg whites into the cake mixture. Repeat with the rest of the egg whites.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the tops with a palette knife, decorate the cake with almond flakes, and bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked and firm to touch. Allow to cool completely in the cake tin. Dust with icing sugar to serve.