Torta al cioccolato della nonna
Grandma's chocolate cake

This is the chocolate cake grandma used to make, my favourite as a child. I slightly tweaked the recipe, adding a bit of cocoa and decreasing sugar, as it really was too sweet, but beware that I'm a very dark chocolate kind of person.

I highly recommend cutting a slice of cake in verical slabs, approx with a 1cm² square section and dipping them in milk, especially if the cake is a few days old.

This cake exists also in the version without chocolate and with apples or raisins, but I feel like it's a bit plain. I especially like to add to the chocolate version some pears, apples, or other fruit. Nuts also fit well, but remember to briefly boil them beforehand to avoid them from turning bitter like recommended for the nut sauce, see .

Ingredients for 8 hungry people  

• 100g dark chocolate
• 200g unrefined sugar
• 125g butter
• 5 fresh eggs
• 125g flour
• 30g cocoa
• hot water
• 500g pears, apples or other fruit (optional)
• 10g baking powder
• 1 loaf pan
• baking paper
• mixer (optional)

Procedure

1. Turn on the oven, 180 °C, ventilated;
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks, then beat the whites until stiff and set them aside;
3. Melt butter and chocolate together;
4. Mix the yolks with the sugar until it looks like a cream with no sugar texture;
5. Add to the mix the melted chocolate and butter, flour, baking powder, and cocoa;
6. Add some hot water until the mix becomes creamy
7. Add slowly while hand mixing the egg white to the mixture;
8. Fill the baking the baking tray with the mixture in the baking paper;
9. Bake for 45 minutes, checking if it's cooked with a toothpick. If when sticking the toothpick it comes out wet, it still needs time in the oven, see warning below.

Be careful: It is important not to open the oven for the first 20 minutes. If not, the cake will “sit”, i.e. collapse and become too dense.