Gluten-Free Chocolate Almond Torta Caprese

The other night, to go along with my lasagna, sorta-Italian-themed date-night-at-home dinner, I decided to make a yummy chocolate almond torte that Titina taught me how to make. We took her class before we moved from Raleigh this summer. It was such a fun experience, and such delicious food! This rich dessert is perfect served slightly warm with a little vanilla gelato and an espresso. Or with a latte for breakfast...

This recipe is gluten-free! Yay! Hope you enjoy a break from my scone obsession!

Torta Caprese

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate (or dark- can use block or chips)
1 1/2 cup whole almonds (or sliced, slivered, chopped, whatever you have on hand)
1 1/4 cup sugar
6 eggs
2/3 cup olive oil (I substituted applesauce and it worked just fine!)
1/4 cup water (I used espresso for a little kick, but I couldn't taste any difference)

1. Grease a 9"-10" round pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Put chocolate and almonds in food processor. Chop until finely minced.

I wanna eat it just like this!!

3. Beat sugar and eggs together until light yellow and slightly frothy.

4. Add oil and water very slowly. (side note: my mixer is 1. stored on top of my cabinets and getting it down involves either climbing up the counter like a monkey or moving furniture, and 2. even on the lowest speed, shoots flour, eggs, sugar, etc on the ceiling, so I rarely use it, but a whisk worked just fine! One day, when I have a kitchen bigger than a shoebox, I'll have a shiny red Kitchenaid stand mixer- so pretty ...one day... Ok, enough dreaming, back to baking.)

5. Slowly and gently stir in the chocolate and almonds until thoroughly mixed.

6. Pour in greased pan.

7. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the center is cooked through. Cool slightly, leave in pan- if you try to take it out, it'll probably fall apart.

doesn't look as pretty here...

forgive the dirty fork, I couldn't wait to dig in!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

-Celina