Imagine trying to make a decadent, show-stopping dessert but without flour, baking soda, baking powder and a long list of other ingredients.
That’s the sort of challenge many bakers face during Passover, when dietary restrictions hamper culinary ambitions. Vanilla extract? Chocolate? Only if it's Kosher for Passover. Either you plan ahead and order special ingredients, which sometimes have to come all the way from Israel, or you make do with what's available at the grocery store.
The pastry team from The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead is up to the challenge. Dallas Marsteller, the hotel's executive pastry chef, is accomplished at creating desserts with lots of "wow". For the hotel's “Haute Chocolate” tea in February, she and her team dreamed up a Flourless Chocolate Brandy Cherry Cake, Coconut Chocolate Frangipane and Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Torte.
When offered the chance to develop a recipe for Passover, she created a chocolate trifle – a flourless chocolate cake, an incredibly simple chocolate mousse and a few garnishes. A gorgeous decadent dessert with just a little tweaking, outlined in the recipe below, needed to make the recipe work for Passover.
Passover begins at sundown Friday, April 6. Those keeping with Jewish tradition will not eat anything made of wheat, oat, barley, spelt or rye, except matzo or matzo meal made from flour and mixed and baked in less than 18 minutes under rabbinic supervision. Peanuts, rice and corn may also be on the prohibited list, which eliminates foods with ingredients like corn syrup, canola oil or lecithin, and these are ingredients that hide in things like chocolate chips, chocolate bars and cans of almond paste.
Marsteller has worked at several Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts and returned to The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead in the last year. She oversees a team of eight that turns out all the desserts served in the hotel including wedding cakes, the scrumptious offerings at afternoon tea and the 25,000 cookies baked each December.
The chocolate flourless cake is a versatile item that appears in several guises. For the chocolate tea, Marsteller baked the cake batter in small silicone molds. Brandied cherries inserted before the cakes are baked give new meaning to the idea of chocolate-covered cherries.
A wedge of plain cake could find its way to a dessert plate garnished with chocolate butter cream. The chocolate Chantilly is most often used as a component of a dessert served in The Café: Triple Chocolate Praline Crunch, but it makes an appearance as a garnish for other desserts as well.
Lucky for The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead’s guests, Marsteller said she learned in culinary school that savory foods were not her thing. “I started working at a small kosher bakery here in Atlanta where I learned that I love doing pastry,” she said. Her next stop was pastry chef for The Ritz-Carlton and her path was set. Her favorite part of the job? The permission she has from her colleagues and the hotel’s clients to be as creative as she can be.
The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead’s Chocolate Flourless Cake
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Serves: 12
Chef Dallas Marsteller’s original recipe calls for 20 ounces of almond paste, an ingredient that can be difficult to find in a Kosher for Passover version. We’ve substituted whole almonds, egg whites and sugar to essentially create our own almond paste. This homemade version will not have the same finely ground texture as store-bought almond paste. If you can find almond flour, substitute it for the whole almonds called for here for a more finely-textured cake. And if you can find Kosher for Passover almond extract, add 1/2 teaspoon to closely mimic the pronounced almond flavor of store-bought almond paste.
3/4 pound whole almonds (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 egg whites
7 eggs
1/4 cup 100 percent cocoa powder
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
Whipped cream, chocolate shavings and berries for garnish, if desired
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease three 9-inch cake pans and line with circle of parchment paper.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine almonds and sugar and process until very finely ground, about 1 minute. Add egg whites and process until mixture forms a ball.
Transfer almond mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Add whole eggs one-by-one and beat until mixture is smooth, scraping bowl between adding each egg. Add cocoa and beat to combine, then slowly add melted butter.
Divide batter between prepared cake pans and bake 13 minutes or until cakes are just set. Do not overbake. The cake layers should still be fudgy and look slightly underdone. Cool cakes 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool. May be used immediately or wrapped and refrigerated overnight, or frozen for up to one month.
Either use recipe in Chocolate Flourless Trifle or make individual serving by serving wedges of cake garnished with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and berries.
Adapted from a recipe provided by chef Dallas Marsteller of The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.
Per serving: 417 calories (percent of calories from fat, 61), 11 grams protein, 32 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 29 grams fat (10 grams saturated), 155 milligrams cholesterol, 60 milligrams sodium.
The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead’s Chocolate Chantilly
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes plus cooling time
Makes: 12 servings
It’s hard to believe two ingredients are all you need for a delicious chocolate mousse-like dessert. Kosher for Passover chocolate may not melt as evenly as other chocolate. If you find a few lumps of chocolate after you cool the cream and chocolate mixture, strain them out before whipping the cream. The key to making this recipe work is the overnight chilling.
1/2 pound Kosher for Passover chocolate chips (about 1 1/4 cups)
3 cups heavy cream
Berries, whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for garnish if desired
Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. In a medium saucepan, heat cream until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat and pour cream over chocolate. Allow to rest 2 minutes, then whisk the mixture until chocolate is melted. Cool mixture, then cover and refrigerate at least overnight. Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.
When ready to serve, whip chocolate cream with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it forms firm peaks, about 2 minutes. Be careful not to overwhip.
Either use the recipe in the Chocolate Flourless Trifle, or make individual servings by layering Chantilly and berries in individual serving dishes and garnishing with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Adapted from a recipe provided by chef Dallas Marsteller of The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.
Per serving: 296 calories (percent of calories from fat, 80), 2 grams protein, 14 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 28 grams fat (17 grams saturated), 82 milligrams cholesterol, 24 milligrams sodium.
The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead’s Chocolate Flourless Trifle
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Serves: 14
Chocolate Flourless Cake (see recipe)
Chocolate Chantilly (see recipe)
2 pints raspberries, divided
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Chocolate shavings for garnish
In a large glass trifle dish, arrange one layer of cake. Trim to fit if necessary. Top cake with half the Chocolate Chantilly. Arrange one pint raspberries over the Chantilly. Repeat with cake layer, remaining Chocolate Chantilly and second pint of raspberries, reserving a few of the berries for garnish. Top with third cake layer.
In a medium bowl, whip cream with a hand mixer until it starts to form peaks. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Cover top of trifle with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings and reserved berries. Serve immediately.
Adapted from a recipe provided by chef Dallas Marsteller of The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.
Per serving: 701 calories (percent of calories from fat, 68), 12 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams fiber, 55 grams fat (27 grams saturated), 226 milligrams cholesterol, 79 milligrams sodium.
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