I came across the inspiration for this torte on one of my favorite vegan food blogs, Oh She Glows. I made the original recipe once and was blown away by how fantasticly smooth, creamy, yet still healthy it was. Made with avocado, the original torte recipe manages to have just as rich a texture as those made with full fat whipping cream.
When I set out to make this torte a second time, I thought I had 4 very ripe avocados hanging around in my refrigerator. Turns out that of those 4 very ripe avocados, only 1 was actually edible while the other three were rotten. To make matters worse, I only came to this realization after I was already well into the recipe--there was no turning back.
Through a little pantry scavenging and imagination, I was able to pull together a torte recipe that, dare I say, may even be better than the original...and maybe even healthier! Check out the recipe below.
Secretly Healthy Vegan Chocolate Torte
Crust Ingredients
1 cup almond flour2 tbsp oat flour
4 tbsp wheat flour
1 tbsp flax meal
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
3 tbsp pure maple syrup or agave
Filling ingredients:
1/2 cups avocado flesh (approx 1 medium avocados), pitted and scooped out1/3 cup vanilla almond milk
5 dates
2/3 cup cashews, soaked
1 lb baby spinach
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp agave (or more if you like things sweet)
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup cocoa powder
What to do
Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, mix together the dry crust ingredients, then set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the wet crust ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir well or beat with a blender. Pour the crust batter into a 9-inch springform pan. Spread out as evenly as possible and bake for 30 minutes at 375F.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Start by soaking the cashews in warm water for at least 15 minutes. Depending on how fresh your dates are, you may want to soak those, too--mine were more than year old, so I softened them up by first soaking them in some hot water for 5-10 minutes.
As the cashews (and dates) are soaking, scoop the flesh of 1 very ripe avocado into a blender or food processor. Next, add the spinach, almond butter, almond milk, arrowroot powder, vanilla extract, agave, and cocoa powder. Finally, add in the soaked cashews and dates, then blend or mix in the food processor on high until mixture is very smooth (this took about 1 minute in the Vitamix). If your blender is struggling through the thick mixture, add in a splash or two of almond milk as needed.
Once the crust is done baking and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, remove from oven to slightly cool off for about 5-10 minutes.
While the crust is cooling, melt your chocolate chips in a small bowl. In this recipe I used fancy Guittard chocolate, which my local grocery store has started to carry in chip form and thus making me very excited. Although you should always microwave chocolate with care lest it burn or seize, I've found this Guittard chocolate is particularly finicky. To melt it, I microwaved it on high for 10 seconds at a time until it was almost completely molten, mixing thoroughly between each zap in the microwave. All in all, this amounted to around 1 minute total. I digress.
Add the melted chocolate chips to the blender or food processor, then blend on high for another 30-45 seconds or until chocolate is completely incorporated and the mixture is very smooth and uniform in texture and color.
Scoop this filling into cake pan on top of crust. Smooth out as much as possible, then place in the freezer for 1.5-2 hours to firm up.
Remove from freezer and allow to sit on the counter for about 10-15 minutes before serving chilled. Enjoy!!
