Directions
The Neapolitan Caprese cake is a very simple dessert, a cake made with a mixture of melted chocolate, chopped almonds, sugar, eggs, and butter. It originates from the island of Capri and its great peculiarity is the total absence of flour. It is no coincidence that in addition to being one of the treasures of Neapolitan pastry, it is also above all one of the first gluten-free cakes that have ever been produced in history.
So if you want to taste an exquisite chocolate cake or if you are celiac or even just gluten intolerant, get ready to make the Caprese cake. It will not take long: the recipe is very simple and even the doses of the ingredients are easy to remember. In practice, all the main ingredients such as butter, sugar, and chocolate have the same dose in grams, apart from the eggs, of course. As for the almonds to make flour, it is always better to put 30 grams more than the dose of chocolate.
If you keep these proportions and if you have the patience to work the dough calmly, whipping the egg whites well, you will be able to make a perfect Caprese cake. Don’t worry, the recipe for this cake is very simple and it’s practically impossible to go wrong!
Ingredients and doses to make the real Neapolitan Caprese cake
- 280 grams of almonds
- 225 grams of dark chocolate
- 225 grams of butter
- 5 eggs
- 225 grams of granulated sugar
How to make the Neapolitan Caprese cake
As the only tip for making a perfect Caprese cake, it is better to buy whole almonds and grind them to make flour, rather than buying almond flour. In this way, you will have total control of the raw materials and you will not leave anything to chance. Put the almonds in the mixer and chop them finely until you get a very fine flour. If you want, you can grind 50 grams of extra almonds more coarsely to add a nice contrast to the cake dough.
Cut the dark chocolate into small pieces with a knife and put it in a small saucepan, add the butter, and melt everything very slowly, in a bain-marie.
Break the eggs, set aside the egg whites, put the egg yolks in a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk for 5 minutes with an electric mixer or planetary mixer.
Pour in the almond flour and mix for a few more minutes.
Put the egg whites in the mixer or a bowl, season with a pinch of salt, and whisk until firm as whipped cream.
Now the most important part: gently add the whipped egg whites to the dough, working slowly with a spatula, mixing from top to bottom, to mix the ingredients well. Be careful not to deflate the whipped egg whites, but do not be afraid to mix carefully, remember that there is no gluten in the Caprese cake, and therefore the structure, the structure of the cake is the egg whites and yolks that swell.
Baking Caprese cake
Grease a 22-24 cm diameter mold and bake the Caprese cake and bake at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
pour onto a greased pan and bake at 180 ° C for 30-35 minutes.
Every oven is different, so you know it better than anyone else, but be careful not to burn the cake by cooking it at too high a temperature, so if you have a convection oven you can bake the cake even at 160 degrees. Better a few degrees less, because the Caprese cake is not a dessert that must rise too much.
After 35 minutes do the toothpick test: plant it inside the cake and if it comes out dry then the Caprese cake is cooked. Turn off the oven, open the door and let the cake cool.
Remove from the mold and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Which wine to pair with the Caprese cake
All this chocolate is hard to manage for a lightly sweet wine, for a Moscato, and even for a Recioto. Much better to combine a fortified wine such as sweet vermouth, Port wine, Madeira and Marsala, Sherry, Brandy, Cognac, and Calvados or a great peaty whiskey like the 16-year-old Lagavulin.
If you want to combine a cocktail, the enveloping flavor of the White Russian is ideal.