Our gâteau au chocolat

When I lived in France, this was our go-to cake (er, gâteau), and I decided to make it for Valentines' Day dinner tonight--after 4 years of not having it! It was so good, we thought we'd share.

I attribute this recipe to mes chers Lise-Marie and Mimo, who were masters at whipping-up this deliciousness for our many parties and Sciences-Po bake sales. In order to be true to the original that was given to me, I'll post that first followed by the conversion I used tonight.


Gâteau au Chocolat

200g beurre
100g farine
250g sucre
5 œufs
100g amandes en poudre
200g chocolat

-Faire fondre le chocolat.
-Mélanger le beurre moue & le sucre. Ajouter les jaunes d'œuf, la farine, les amandes, et le chocolat fondu.
-Monter les blancs d'œuf en neige et les incorporer
-Mettre au four (à 150ºC) environ 40 minutes.


Since I lost my trusty food scale during the last move, I used Julia Child's little conversion chart for measurements, making tonight's gâteau like so:

14 Tbs butter
3.5 oz. flour
9 oz. sugar
5 eggs
3.5 oz. almond meal (You can get this at Trader Joe's, or pulverize your own.)
7 oz. unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's Unsweetened, since that's what I like.)

-Melt the chocolate (I added about 1 oz. of espresso.)
-Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the yolks of the 5 eggs (conserve the whites), the flour, the almond meal, and the molten chocolate.
-Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold these into the chocolate mixture.
-Pour into a round cake pan (I used a 10" silicone mold.) Bake at 300ºF for 40 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes and turn-out. Serve warm. We chose vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment, but it is also good by itself or with a raspberry coulis.