Description
Chai-Spiced Pecan Torte with roasted pears – a subtly sweet, chai spiced flourless cake using pecans as the base. Perfect for holiday gatherings, brunch or afternoon tea.
Ingredients
Units
Chai Spice:
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Torte:
- 3 cups raw pecans (340 grams) or sub almond meal (see notes), or ground hazelnuts.
- 4 eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon molasses (or sub brown sugar for the white sugar and leave this out)
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
Roasted Pears:
- 2 pears
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon chai spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Oil the paper and sides of the pan.
- Make the chai spice mix. Mix cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, clove and black pepper in a bowl. Set aside 1 teaspoon of mix to use on pears later.
- Pulse raw pecans, chai spice mix and salt in a food processor until nuts are fine, being cautious to not turn them into butter. They should be the texture of coarse sand.
- In a shallow bowl beat the separated egg yolks with the sugar and molasses until the mixture becomes emulsified and lighter in color.
- Add the pecans and mix to combine. The mixture will be quite thick.
- Whip the egg whites to soft peaks.
- Place 1/3 of the whipped egg whites in the center of the pecan mixture. Using a rubber spatula or large metal spoon slice down the middle through the egg whites gently folding the whites and pecan meal towards the center, give the bowl about an 1/8 of a turn toward you and repeat the process, slice down the middle and gently fold 2 or 3 times per turn. Once you make it around the entire bowl, slicing, turning and folding, scrape down the sides of the bowl and gently fold that in. Then add ½ of the egg white mixture remaining and repeat the slicing, folding, turning process and then add the remaining whites and repeat process giving a few extra turns if needed to fully incorporate batter.
- Pour into the parchment-lined springform pan.
- Bake @ 350 in a preheated oven 25-30 minutes, or until cake is firm to the touch in the center.
Roasted Pears ( 450F oven)
- Core and slice pears (peel if desired).
- Place on a sheet pan with parchment.
- Cut butter into a few slices and disperse evenly.
- Sprinkle spices and sugar on top.
- Roast in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until tender.
Notes
- Using raw pecans is important as roasted nuts release more oil and can turn the nuts to nut butter while grinding in the processor.
- Almond Meal is ground almonds, not almond flour.
- For a speedy way to bring eggs to room temperature, separate your refrigerated eggs and then leave them out about 20-30 minutes while you gather the remaining ingredients. They will warm up faster this way then if just left on the counter in the shell.
- For an even lighter and richer batter you can increase the eggs to 6.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: With the roasted pears
- Calories: 353
- Sugar: 20.9 g
- Sodium: 262.6 mg
- Fat: 26.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.1 g
- Fiber: 4.7 g
- Protein: 5.8 g
- Cholesterol: 77.5 mg