Toasted sesame seeds in a rich cake topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache.  Make it once and it’ll find a way into your repertoire.  It’s easy to prepare and has a cool first step: heating the seeds in a skillet until they start to crackle and pop, removing from the heat, adding cold milk, and stirring to produce an aromatic sesame (mash) that gets folded into the batter at the end.

TOASTY SESAME CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup raw sesame seeds

3/4 cup cold milk (substitute almond or soy milk for a dairy free version)

1 cup (6 oz.) GF flour mix (yours, ours, Trader Joe’s)

1/2 cup (2.5 oz.) chestnut flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon xantham gum

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup (4 oz.) canola oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil

1 cup (8 oz.) granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F, and lightly grease a deep 9″ spring form pan.

2.  Toast the sesame seeds in a medium sized skillet.  You’ll know when they get close to being finished when you hear and see them start to pop, and the wooden spoon you’re using shows signs of oil being drawn from the seeds.  Turn off the head after the seeds start to smoke. Remove from the heat, cool slightly before stirring in the cold milk. Set aside.

3.  Measure the dry ingredients into a small mixing bowl.  Whisk to blend.  Add to the butter/egg mixture, stirring until just blended. Scrape down, taking care to incorporate the batter at the bottom of the bowl.

4.  In a stand mixer, cream the oils and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat until well blended and light in color, scraping down as needed.  Add the vanilla. and beat well to blend.

5.  Add the sesame mash, mixing on low speed until blended. Scrape down to fully blend all the batter.

6.  Turn into the prepared pan and bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until golden brown on the top and the edges have just started to pull from the sides of the pan.

7.  Cool completely before removing from the pan and transferring the cake to a flat serving plate.

8.  Ice the cooled cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache, letting some drizzle over the edges.  Alternately, let the cake cool and pour the Ganache over the top whilst it is still in the pan so that it forms a consistently flat, shiny chocolate surface.  Chill for an hour or two to insure the ganache is firm before running a knife around the edge of the pan and carefully removing the the side, keeping the icing layer intact.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 (4 oz.) cup heavy cream

6 oz. Bittersweet chocolate, chopped or bits (I like Ghiradelli Bittersweet or Callebaut chocolate for this recipe.)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Bring the heavy cream to boil in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat.

2.  Add the chocolate to the cream and cover for 10 minutes or until the chocolate has melted.

3.  Whisk to a smooth, pourable/spreadable consistency.  It should be cool enough to spread after it’s been stirred.  If not, let it sit a little longer. Reheat in a bath of hot water if it gets too stiff to pour/spread easily.

Seeds into the pan

Assembling the ingredients

Starting to get hot enough to emit some oil and stick to the spoon

Adding the milk to the toasted seeds

Stirring to make the mash

Blending the sugar and oil

Weighing the dry ingredients

Eggs in, one at a time

Flour into the mix all at once

Beating until just blended

Adding the sesame mash

Beating again until blended

Scraping and folding to incorporate the ingredients evenly

Spreading into the prepared pan

Time to make more GF Flour Mix

Just out of the oven

Transferring the cake to the flat plate

Pouring on the warm ganache

Spreading to the edges

Couldn’t wait for the ganache to set before slicing