For the Best Flourless Chocolate Cake, Moisture is Key

Classic Flourless Chocolate Cake is an ever-popular gluten-free dessert that should take on a dense, fudgy texture after baking. However, the rich dessert can easily become too dry once it’s finished cooking. This famous lack of gluten is often cited as a reason, as is baking the cake for too long. Luckily, there’s an easy way to add a little extra moisture to dessert to avoid that lingering dryness. If you want your homemade flourless chocolate cake to be moist and fudgy, you’ll need to get things a little steamy inside the oven.

All you’ll need is a baking dish or roasting pan and some water in the oven with the cake. This will generate steam during the baking process, which will be trapped inside the oven while the cake bakes, allowing the extra moisture to be absorbed by the dessert.

Read more: 8 Baking Sheet Mistakes You Want to Avoid

How to steam cake

To start the steaming process, you will need to ensure that your oven has been preheated to the temperature recommended in the recipe and that your cake batter is mixed and ready to bake. Next, pour about 1 or 2 inches of boiling water into your metal (not glass) roasting pan or baking dish. Open the oven door and place the pot of boiling water on the lower rack. Place your cake pan on the rack above the water and quickly close the oven door.

The heat inside the oven is usually quite dry, so a little extra moisture can go a long way in improving your baked goods. It’s important to keep this steam trapped inside the oven while the cake bakes. So while it may be tempting to open the oven door to check on your cake before the timer goes off, you shouldn’t risk letting heat or steam escape. until the cake is completely cooked.

However, be careful not to overcook the cake. You’ll want to leave it in the oven until the edges are set. Even with the added moisture from steam, overcooking the cake could cause it to dry out.

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You can also create a bain-marie to generate steam

There is another method for adding extra moisture to your flourless chocolate cake that involves a somewhat similar approach. You can create a double boiler to bake the cake, similar to how a cheesecake is typically prepared. However, instead of placing a pan of water on the oven rack under the cake, the cake pan is placed inside the water.

Make sure you use a completely sealed pan so water can’t seep into the cake batter. Then, once the dough is in the mold, place this mold inside the roasting pan. Boil water and pour the water into the roasting pan. This water should steam up as the cake bakes, and the steam will be even closer to the dessert than when the two are on separate racks.

Whether you choose to steam your cake using a double boiler or a separate roasting tray underneath, the process can provide much-needed moisture to ensure your chocolate dessert turns out perfectly melting. The cake can then be finished with a topping of powdered sugar, whipped cream, ganache or fresh fruit.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.