"She eats gluten free."

The lovely Ingrid's nephew was telling his friend about her the other day and in describing his aunty to his little friend, Nathan described her as "eating gluten free."  Clearly if a 4 year old uses this descriptor, then it's kind of a big deal.

For those of us who are still gleefully (and thankfully) devouring bread, pastries, and practicing all sorts of gluten-laden gluttony, going gluten-free seems virtually unimaginable.  But the other day, I made a flourless chocolate cake, sans gluten, that made me think that if ever I had to practice non-gluten gluttony, that it might be survivable....

Flourless Chocolate Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart)

This is a Martha recipe and it does take a bit of work to create but the results are fabulous.  The cake isn't much to look at but it is decadent and delicious!

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Confectioners' sugar or Dutch-processed cocoa, for dusting
Sweetened whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees with the rack in the center. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

Begin by beating the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating until you have glossy stiff peaks.  You really should use a stand mixture here.

Once you have that done, put the butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and microwave it in 30-second increments (the first time you can do about a minute to a minute and a half) until it's completely melted.  Whisk in the egg yolks but let the chocolate butter mixture cool down a bit so you don't cook the yolks.  (The original recipe says to do this step first but I found that when I started with the chocolate mixture, by the time I had the whites beaten, the chocolate mixture had cooled and hardened, which then resulted in all sorts of shenanigans to get the whole things softened again without having the heat it in the microwave so as to not cook the yolks.)

At this point,  whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture; then gently fold in remaining egg whites. 

Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan. Serve at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar or since I didn't have any, I used cocoa powder, which was also nice. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.