Chocolate Nut Chocolate Cake with Grilled Orange

Four cups of nuts. Four different kinds: pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts. All ground fine and folded into a bittersweet chocolate batter with eight separated eggs. No flour. No butter. This is a flourless cake with Sephardic roots, and the nut mixture gives it a dense, rich crumb that holds moisture for days.

The food processor grinds both the nuts and the chocolate with sugar into a fine meal. Pulse in batches to avoid overheating, which releases oil from the nuts and turns them into paste. You want a dry, sandy texture that disperses evenly into the batter.

Egg yolks beaten thick and pale provide the richness, while whites whipped to soft peaks with sugar give the lift. Folding these together with the nut-chocolate mixture takes patience. Gentle, sweeping motions from the bottom up keep the air in the whites intact. Rush this and the cake bakes flat and dense instead of having that slight airiness in the center.

The grilled oranges are the finishing touch that connects this cake to its Sephardic heritage. Navel orange sections tossed in honey, then seared on a screaming-hot grill pan for just ten seconds per side. The honey caramelizes into dark lines while the orange warms through without losing its structure.

Chef Tips

• Line the springform pan bottom with parchment. This cake sticks stubbornly without it
• Grind the nuts in batches. Overloading the food processor creates uneven pieces with some chunks and some powder
• Test at 55 minutes. A tester should come out clean, but the cake will still be slightly moist looking. It firms as it cools
• The grill pan needs to be truly hot. Ten seconds is all you get before the orange sections fall apart

Variations

• Use all hazelnuts for a more traditional European torte
• Swap honey for orange blossom water mixed with sugar for a more floral, Middle Eastern accent
• Serve with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream instead of oranges