Flourless and Nearly Fat Free Chocolate Cake with Chobani Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Yogurt

This recipe is for all my friends who are either dieting or who can no longer tolerate gluten in their diets.  Experimenting in the kitchen can be daunting and I'm reluctant to put a lot of time and expensive ingredients into what can turn out to be a flop.  Even though I cook and bake on a regular basis I still agonize about making changes because I don't want to ruin a good dish.  This cake is an exception. It started out as a chocolate souffle cake with flour and lots of butter.  I accidentally omitted the flour a few months ago when I was making it and the results were delicious but not very pretty.  The beaten egg whites make the cake very high and the crust formed about an inch above the rest of the cake - once I took it out of the oven and tried to cut it, the whole thing came crashing down in little flakes.
 
Chobani recently sent me a case of their yogurt to cook with.  I knew right away that I wanted to do something baked with the Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Yogurt but it took me a while to figure out how.  I decided to try to replace all the butter in my flour-less cake with Chobani Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Yogurt.  This yogurt is not as sweet as you might think so I was able to use it without changing the amount of sugar in the recipe.  The finished cake has a beautiful thin fragile crust. The taste is like the most delicate and fluffy fudge you have ever eaten.  Slightly sour and earthy from the yogurt and fluffy and delicate from all the eggs.

I highly recommend chilling the cake before serving. Use a hot knife to slice (cleaning it each time you make a cut).

Prepare a 9" spring form pan.  Butter the sides and bottom.  Cut a piece of parchmant to fit the bottom and butter that too.  Wrap the outside of the pan (as shown in the photo) with plastic wrap.  You will be baking this in a waterbath to slow the cooking time down and you don't want any water to seep into your chocolate.

Have ALL ingredients at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup Chobani Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs separated

Melt 12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate in a microwave safe glass bowl.  I do this 30 seconds at a time checking after each interval and stirring.  You don't want to burn the chocolate and you don't want it to get too hot. Whisk the yogurt into the melted chocolate.  This yogurt has a little bit of cream in it which is essential to preventing the chocolate from seizing when you incorporate it.  If for some reason the chocolate does seize you can add a tablespoon of heavy cream to get it back.  After incorporating the yogurt whisk in the vanilla and the five egg yolks - one at a time and half of the sugar (6 tablespoons).  Set aside.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt in a standing mixer until they have soft peaks.  With the mixer running gradually add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until the egg whites form stiff peaks that are glossy.

Fold about 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the chocolate to lighten the chocolate batter.  Then fold the remaining egg whites in gently but completely (you don't want to deflate the whites as you incorporate them and that is why you aren't stirring).

Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.  Place the pan in another pan that is large enough for you to pour room temperature water into (about 1" if possible). You are cooking this cake in a water bath to prevent it from cooking too fast.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center has moist crumbs (not liquid) adhering to it.  There will be a thin crust on the top of the cake and it will start to pull away from the sides of the pan.  It will take at least 35 - 40 minutes.  Cool the cake on a rack and gently remove the ring of the pan before chilling. This cake can be made a few days ahead of serving.

I serve this cake with lightly sweetened whipped cream and a fruit compote of berries.   For the berry compote take approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups of frozen berries, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water and gently simmer for about 5 minutes until the berries start to fall apart and the liquid starts to thicken.  You can also blend this to make a coulis if desired.

Enjoy!