Preparation / Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 175øC (350øF).
2. In a small pan, melt chocolate over low heat. Cool to room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and mix in melted, cooled chocolate. Add egg yolks, one by one, and half of the sugar, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Fold in ground almonds and then flour.
4. In another bowl, whip egg whites just until they are stiff. Add remaining half of the sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy, about 30 seconds more.
5. Stir 1/4 of the egg whites into chocolate mixture and then fold in the rest of them. Pour mixture into a 20-cm (8-inch), buttered and floured cake pan.
6. Bake until cake shrinks slightly from sides of the pan and the top springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip, about 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan for a few minutes before turning it out onto a cake rack to cool completely. At this point, cake can be stored in an airtight container for a week.
7. For the glaze, a few hours before serving, melt chocolate with butter over very low heat. Stir gently.
8. Put cake on a rack and spread warm glaze over its top and sides, working quickly to finish before glaze sets.
* To make ground almonds, cover them with water, bring to a boil, drain, and then slip each almond out of its skin by pinching between your thumb and forefinger. In a 175øC (350øF) oven, toast almonds until they are light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool. In a food processor, grind almonds with a few tablespoons of the sugar by turning machine on and off.
Serves: 8 to 10
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