Yay chocolate! For better or worse, this was the month of the chocolate cake, and this chocolate torte was quite stunning and super easy. The recipe is adapted from Carol Fenster to be chocolat-ier and sugar free. Agave nectar and flourless tortes are often mutually exclusive, but this was a winner! Next time I may try with a different nut.
I stumbled by Amy’s blog and Slightly 
Indulgent Mondays event and this seemed like a good fit, and a good excuse for me to post another recipe! It’s indulgent because, hey, it’s a chocolate cake. But with the sources of fat from olive oil, pecans and eggs, it’s much kinder on your body say, the standard cake with butter and loads of sugar. It’s dairy free and low glycemic. And, like all of my recipes, the ingredients are wholesome, healthy gluten free foods, just with a rockin’ taste. And now no sugar. Life is good.
Also, of course, check out the other fun recipes entered, too!
2 cups of pecans
5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup olive oil
1 TBSP mesquite + the rest of a 1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp stevia powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
Grease a 9 inch springform, line with parchment and dust the sides with cocoa powder. Grind pecans into pecan meal in a food processor, add in cocoa, agave, stevia, salt, vanilla, oiland yolks and grind a minute more. Whip whites to stiff peaks, and gently fold the pecan mixture into the whites
Pour batter into the pan and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the top starts to brown. Allow to cool a good 10 minutes before unmolding from the springform. You can frost or not, depending on your mood. I made a simple macadamia cream/cocoa ganache and sprinkled raw cacao on top.
I was delighted when I discovered the August Daring Baker challenge!
Let’s just start by saying that I grew up a few blocks away from a Pepperidge Farm outlet store. You know, the places where cookies go when they’re put out to pasture…maybe a few days before the expiration date, maybe cookies that didn’t make the cut, you get the general idea. As I grew up in a–let’s say–thrifty family (and I definitely have the thrifty gene myself!!!) I came to intimately know and love their cookies. I don’t think I could say what my favorite was–the Geneva? Brussels? Bordeaux? Seriously, why choose.
But needless to day
I was overly jazzed when I discovered that Orange Milan Cookies were this month’s DB challenge.
Since I couldn’t eat them anyway, I opted to just make them GF. I used Better Batter flour and subbed 1:1. It worked perfectly. The milan cookies were very delicate at first so I added a tablespoon more flour, which in retrospect was silly. Despite my better judgment, I did also use 1.5 Tablespoons of lemon extract, and honestly, I still think that was too much. I’d have to eliminate it all together to make the holy grail of cookies, Mint Milan cookies.
Kate of 
Ricki of 
Wendy of 
Emily was eager to recreate a quinoa recipe she had in San Diego, and she brings us her 
Could I really be the only one who brings along dessert? Well, 
Heather of
always sank. So I pretty much forgot all about the recipe for years, until it popped back into my head a month or so ago. Very few of the original ingredients remain, but the taste is along the same lines. Very chocolate, very dense, very fruity, very moist.
I love the fact that every month, I have to stretch a little bit outside my comfort zone, get a little daring and bake up a storm!
h is a fabulous jumping off point for subsequent recipe tweaking.
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