Passover Chocolate Almond Torte

Our friends Xenia and Gary invited our family over to Passover Seder dinner a few years ago. Xenia asked us to bring dessert. For one of the desserts, I ordered a delicious raspberry meringue confection from Martha's Pastries. For a homemade dessert, I found this recipe online at AllRecipes.com, impressed by its 4.5 out of 5 star reader rating.  Brad prepared it for the meal and it got gobbled up quickly. We've enjoyed eating it since, even when it's not Passover. With only five ingredients, the torte offers a different take on a flourless chocolate cake, only this one remains true to the rules of Passover.

Passover Chocolate Torte
Adapted from AllRecipes.com recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pareve margarine
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (we like Ghirardelli)
• 5 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup ground almonds (use a coffee grinder or small Cuisinart; adding a bit of sugar from the recipe can help; don't overgrind or it could turn into paste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with foil. Grease foil.
2. Melt margarine and chocolate in saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth and let cool.
3. In a medium-size mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, for about 2 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, beat together yolks and sugar until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Blend chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. Stir in ground almonds.
5. Fold beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture, 1/3 at a time, until no streaks of white remain. Scrape batter into prepared pan.
6. Place an 8"x 8" baking pan with 1 inch of water in it on the bottom rack of the oven. This will make the torte more moist.
7. Bake torte on center rack for 45 to 50 minutes, or until sides begin to pull away from pan and the top is set in the center. Cover the torte loosely with foil for the last 20 minutes of baking. Don't worry if the cake cracks because the cake will be inverted.
8. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and then carefully remove sides of pan. Invert cake onto a serving plate and cool completely. Add confectioner's sugar and berries to finish.

Enjoy this chocolatey sweet at the end of the symbolic Seder meal, or enjoy it any time of the year.