Ricotta and Chocolate Cake – Torta di ricotta e cioccolata
There are many ricotta cake recipes, but when I’ve tried this one I fell in love with it so I’ve decided to publish it here. It’s a wonderful recipe that my friend Sara gave me.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
2-1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cold butter sliced thinly
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. grappa
For the filling:
14 oz. fresh ricotta
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup un-sweetened chocolate chips
Instructions:
1. In a large bowl mix the ingredients for the crust with the exception of the butter.
2. Now cut the butter into thin slices and add it to the mixture working it in gently, but not so much that everything blends together. To have to butter cold enough you should put it in the freezer for 20 or 30 minutes before slicing it.
3. Take half the crust mixture and press it gently into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan that has been greased with butter and dusted with flour.
4. Now mix the ricotta and sugar with a fork.
5. Once mixed in well add the chocolate chips mix again and then spread it evenly on top of the crust.
6. Take the remainder of the crust and crumble it with your hands letting the pieces fall over the filling. You can press it down gently if you wish, however when it bakes the butter will melt and the crust will take a nice form.
7. Bake in a preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes at 320°. Serve it at room temperature.
Notes:
Grappa is a liquor that is made by distilling the residue of the grapes after they’ve been pressed to make wine. It’s available in better liquor stores. If you are uncomfortable with using grappa you can just skip it, but it sure gives a particular flavor to the crust.
Note that the cake isn’t completely enclosed in the crust like a pie, but instead it’s shaped like a crumble cake with crust also on the bottom and filling in the middle.
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Hi Patty, thanks for posting this. I made it and it has become one of my firm favourites. I’ve since found a version on epicurious.com which I am going to try this week (it has some rum soaked raisins in it as well). I’ve actually decided that it will be my dessert contribution for Christmas lunch – given that the big rich fruit puddings are a little too much on a hot Christmas day in Australia. Cheers, Justine
Looks and sounds delicious! I’d love to give it a try, and was wondering if you could please point out the weight of the flour and sugar used for the crust.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
@Justine: Thank you Justine! How did the epicurious cake turned out?
@ali: for the crust you need g. 300 flour and g. 150 sugar.
Hello Patty,
Thank you for your kind reply! That’s very helpful…
I’m really looking forward to making this cake.
Thanks again!
This reciepe is easy, quick and utterly devine!!!
Hope this is good! Just put it in the oven for an Italian themed dinner potluck. I didn’t have grappa so tried rum and semi-sweet chips to avoid a trip to the store. Thanks for the recipe!
This cake if fabulous! very simple to prepare and turns out every time.
How did it turn out with rum? Are there other substitutes for grappa or would it be better to just leave it out?
i will love to tryhis recipe but can i substitues pineapple or some other fruit.
This recipe turns out a wonderful and not-too-sweet, but very rich cake. Soooo good! (And I don’t even use the grappa!)
any advice making the ricotta and chocolate cake at high altitude ?
I made it without the grappa and it turned out good. First thought that came to mind after tasting it was biscotti. The top seemed a little dry, how would I moisten that for next time? Thanks for sharing this recipe, it was fun to make.
@Jen: You could try to add a little bit of milk instead of the grappa. Glad you had fun making it.
This is a great cake! Thank you so much for the recipe.
I substituted vanilla for grappa (admittedly that’s a lot of vanilla) with good results.
I also made a gluten-free version, substituting for the wheat flour a mixture of 6 parts brown rice flour to 2 parts potato starch (not potato flour) to 1 part tapioca flour, plus 3/4 tsp of xanthan gum mixed very thoroughly. I added an egg white to give the flour a little more support. The resulting batter wasn’t as crumbly as the wheat version, so I took care to break it into little pieces when adding the topping. It took 10 minutes longer to bake (with either version, I used the “bake it till it almost doesn’t jiggle in the middle” criterion.) The result was quite close to the wheat version, which sadly isn’t always the case in gluten-free baking.