Butter-free Tenerina: try it now
Butter-free Tenerina cake: try it now
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Bowl
- Electric whisk
- Sieve
- Spatula
- Baking pan (22 cm)
Ingredients
- 3 Eggs
- 2 tablespoons Pastry flour
- 50 g Extra Virgin olive oil (or Preparato per Dolci in Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva alla Vaniglia Farchioni)
- 100 g Sugar
- 150 g Dark chocolate
Instructions
- Melt chocolate over a bain-marie.
- Slowly stir in the extra virgin olive oil.
- Crack the eggs open and separate the whites from the yolks.
- Start adding sugar to the yolks while beating until the mixture turns light and fluffy.
- Add the sifted flour and mix with a spatula.
- Add the melted chocolate and keep mixing.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Gradually add them to the mixture in a circular motion from the bottom up.
- Pour into a 22 cm hinged mold and bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes.
If you like desserts, you must have tried this chocolate cake, loved by children, that we call “Tenerina”. It is traditionally prepared with butter, but – believe us – it will taste wonderful if you use extra virgin olive oil. Why should you try the olive oil version? It will be lighter, more digestible and suitable for the lactose-intolerant. So let’s try making it together!
Butter-free Tenerina: preparation tips
We want to obtain a very soft and light cake, slightly moist inside.
- Use your eggs at room temperature: it will be easier to mix them with the other ingredients and to beat the whites nice and stiff.
- Sift your flour to prevent lumps.
- Make sure no yolk residue is left in your whites before you beat them.
- When blending ingredients, move your spatula up and over; the dough will incorporate more air and your cake will be fluffier.
- If kept too long in the oven, Tenerina may dry out: bake it for 25 minutes tops, then stick a toothpick in the middle. Your toothpick should come out moist.
- One last tip: we advise you to use a hinged mold to prevent your cake from breaking when unmolding.
Tenerina: why no butter?
Here are some of the reasons why we prefer to use extra virgin olive oil rather than butter or seed oil:
- It is more digestible than either butter or seed oil, which may adversely affect your liver.
- It contains “good” fats that help regulate blood cholesterol levels.
- Being liquid, it acts as a blending agent for the other ingredients, which will incorporate more air and make the cake fluffier.
- It also contains antioxidants which will help keep Tenerina fresh for longer (cakes made with butter dry out sooner).
- It only contains vegetable fats, and thus can be recommended to lactose intolerant.
For our Tenerina, we used Preparato per Dolci in Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva alla Vaniglia Farchioni, a mix of cold-extracted EVO oil and natural vanilla flavors, ideal to use instead of butter and seed oil in dessert recipes.
You know all the secrets, it’s time to get to work!
