You don’t have to be on a gluten free diet to appreciate Yotam Ottolenghi’s Flourless Coconut Cake ~ this super moist, super decadent pound cake is completely grain free and a must try.
I know we all have lots of choices for dessert recipes, between cookbooks, blogs, magazines, and Pinterest, I bet you’re swimming in possibilities. But one of my goals I have here at tvfgi is to help you cut to the chase and find those gems you might not otherwise discover.ย
I found this flourless coconut cake in Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest book, Sweet, which I got for Christmas this year. It’s his first book dedicated to desserts and I wasn’t sure what to expect, I think of him more as a savory kind of guy. But since he’s been a major inspiration for me in the past few years,ย I was anxious to give his ‘sweet’ side a chance. This simple cake is unique and delicious, I think you’re going to love it.
I’ve always been fascinated by flourless cakes, and I’ve done a few before. ..a classic FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE, and a couple of flourless citrus cakes, GLUTEN FREE TANGERINE and FLOURLESS MEYER LEMON. The minute I read the name of this cake I knew I wanted to try it ~ it rounds out the bunch with an entirely different flavor profile. Just putting the words ‘coconut’ and ‘flourless’ in the same sentence conjures up all sorts of deliciousness.
To be honest, when I pulled this flourless coconut cake out of the oven I wasn’t super impressed. It didn’t look like much, and there were a few ragged chunks stuck in the corners of my loaf pan, which I carefully patched back on. It wasn’t until I sliced off the end piece and took a taste that I realized I had a winner on my hands. It’s sooooo moist and the coconut flavor is fabulous.
Of course, no surprise, the ganache glaze made a good cake a great cake. The two flavors are legendary together.
The almond flour and the shredded coconut give it just enough structure to hold together, but that’s it. As you can see from the photos, it’s not a tall fluffy cake, the texture is almost creamy! It’s a sophisticated little dessert that would go great with an after dinner espresso.
TIP: Don’t skip the parchment lining for this cake, it’s essential to getting it out of the pan so you can slice and serve it.
*recipe slightly adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Sweet.
Yotam Ottlenghiโs Flourless Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2/3 cup shredded coconut, the sweetened kind
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds of one vanilla bean
- 4 large eggs
- 1 2/3 cups almond meal, or almond flour
ganache glaze
- 4 ounces dark chocolate, cut in small pieces
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla or seeds from 1/2 pod
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Butter a standard (9x5") loaf pan and line with parchment paper with overhanging ends.
- Beat the butter and sugar together for several minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the coconut, salt, and vanilla.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the almond flour. Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan, smoothing out the top. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully lift out of the pan and continue to cool on a rack. Frost with the ganache when completely cool.
- To make the ganache ~ put the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. Combine the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for a couple of minutes, until the mixture is golden colored. Remove from heat and carefully pour in the water and vanilla. If the mixture seizes, just put it back on the heat and heat until melted. Pour this hot mixture over the chocolate and let sit for 3 minutes. Whisk to combine, then add the butter, a bit at a time, whisking until everything is smooth and glossy.
- Glaze the cake with the ganache.
Make it your own ~
- You can bake this in a round pan with a removable bottom, like a spring form or tart pan, but keep in mind, it will be quite flat.
- You could theoretically do without the chocolate glaze for a plainer cake, the flavor is so nice, but it won’t look as purdy ๐
Don’t forget to pin this wonderful flourless coconut cake for later!
I was just wondering if i could add fresh blueberries, would it make my my cake to dense? also if i add blueberries do you think i should add flour? Many Thanks.
The cake is quite moist and dense already Hannah, but you could add berries, and you could dust them with flour first, if you like.
Yes one of the best!! I changed it quite a bit but was still delicious. Used palm sugar and less.. added a bit more almond meal because it was very runny when I put it in the tin – and some flaked coconut – used coconut sugar for the ganache – and then sprinkled toasted almond flakes on top. great!! yum…
Do you think this could work as a layer cake with a filling in the middle? Would it hold up itโs own weight? Looks very moist! Thanks!
I don’t think so, it’s soooooo delicate!
Great Flavor! Is the cake suppose to sink big time in the middle? I baked it an extra 10 minutes as it definitely wasn’t ready in the recommended time. Could be my oven as I’m having to continually adjust the baking temp in an oven that needs to be replaced.
It does sink a bit, it’s so super moist. I think I under-baked mine a little bit, too, but oven temperature is always an issue. Try an oven thermometer, I can’t get along without mine.
Made this cake today for Easter. It was a big hit! So delicious!!!
How would you recommend storing leftover cake? (I know, itโs shocking that we had leftovers! haha)
It’s totally shocking that you had leftovers, Billie! I would probably store any leftover loosely covered on the counter.
Iโm planning to make for Passover, but thereโs already another chocolate dessert. I was thinking of replacing the ganache with lemon curd โ any thoughts on this? Also, do you think it would work with margarine (or other dairy-free ingredient) instead of butter, or should I just let guests know it has dairy in it?
I think it would work with lemon curd, but I’m not sure about the substitutions. I wonder if coconut oil, in solid form, would work?
I was going to ask about coconut oil, also.
I made it with virgin coconut oil! I had the right sized loaf tin, but ended up having to leave the cake in the oven over an hour as it was still wobbly after 40 minutes (I checked every 10 minutes after that until the knife came out clean, temp reduced from 180ยบ to 150ยบC as it was brown on top already). It is extremely moist, but manageable. Butter is only 85% fat and solid-ish at room temp, so it makes sense that it would be even more moist with coconut oil; might need some tweaking. An extra 50 g almond flour? A little less oil? As for the glaze, I made the mistake of pouring all the coconut oil into the chocolate/caramel mix at the same time and it was a disaster, the mix separated and after trying to rescue it by mixing it furiously with various implements, I had to trowel on the chocolate blob and leave behind some of the coconut oil. Somehow the cake, ganache included, still turned out tasty (and very coconutty) if a bit heavy.
Since the coconut has a tropical flavour, I made a passionfuit curd for the topping….delicious!
Any Keto sugar substitute ideas? the sugar adds a gooey texture that will be hard to imitate with stevia or monk fruit. could you add monk fruit/stevia to phylum husk or another binder? Any ideas will help. I have failed miserably at trying to make Tahani cookies with alanine(sugarless amnio acid) & monk fruit. lol Have you tried Tahani yet…!!!?
Thanks
Ron
Gosh I haven’t been so adventurous Ron, I’m afraid I can’t help you here, maybe another reader will chime in?
Can I substitute the sugar with xylitol and how much should I add when doing so?
I haven’t worked with xylitol Lydia, but please let us know how it goes if you try.
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Sure, but I would definitely glaze it after defrosting.
Two totally unrelated questions. Is there a way to make this both nut-free and gluten-free? also, could you substitute reg flour if you didnโt care about being gluten-free?
That’s a tough one Jane, because this is such a unique recipe I’m not sure if you could substitute the almond flour for a nut free flour like oat or regular flour, you would probably just have to experiment to see if it works.