Apr 17

Apr 17 Gluten-Free Mocha Chocolate Chip Walnut Mini Loaf Cakes + Video

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Gluten-Free Mocha Chocolate Chip Walnut Mini Loaf Cakes: soft, tender, slightly gooey, and packed with flavor from cocoa, coffee, chocolate chips, walnuts, and a glossy coffee glaze.

It’s Wednesday. Passover begins on Friday evening. That’s two days away.

So it’s time for our second Passover 2019 recipe. (Second, because last week featured these flourless nut butter chewy cookie miracles. And yes, I’ll of course be back next week with our third, and last, Passover recipe for this year.)

But enough about the past and future. Let’s do the “being present” thing and discuss today’s Passover recipe, these mocha chocolate chip walnut loaf cakes. Gluten-free, obviously. And mini, because adorable. And delightfully full-bodied in flavor and soft and gooey in texture, duh.

Before I proceed. I’ve also got a video tutorial for these gf mocha chocolate chip walnut mini loaf cakes. Here:

Or, watch it on YouTube.

These are mocha mini loaf cakes. You know what that means, right? It means there’s both coffee and cocoa powder in these tiny gf loaf cakes. Looks like everybody came along for the ride this time, woo!

Everybody, including chocolate chips and walnuts. Because as lovely as a plain mocha cake is, the inclusion of dark chocolate nuggets and crunchy walnut bits that get dispersed throughout the soft mocha cake interior does the opposite of harm. They are quite the welcome additions, I say.

We’ve got deep and dark and rich and intense and robust and full-bodied flavor in our Passover loaf cakes here. I’d say the main flavor profile is coffee, with chocolate undertones and hints of vanilla. (Is it just me, or should I just make a profession already out of describing wine flavor profiles on the backs of the bottles? No? Just me?)

And did I touch on the texture (pun intended) of these gluten-free mocha loaf cakes yet? Allow me.

These mocha loaves are soft and tender and ever so slightly gooey, and stay that way for days.

Yes, I said gooey. Like so moist and dense but not dense as in heavy dense but dense as in squishy but also fluffy at the same time and moist, just so moist, I am sorry, I don’t know how else to put it.

This results from the almond flour, which is fatty and rich and yields heavier (in a good way) cakes than all-purpose flour does. And also from three large eggs. And some oil. And brown sugar. Only brown sugar. No white sugar here, people.

ALSO!!! If you should so desire. These mini mocha loaves can be easily converted into large mocha muffins. Which is fun, because alliteration. And also fun because you’re more likely to have a muffin tray than you are a mini loaf tray. Okay, maybe less fun and more practical, but still.

Just as an FYI, if you were dying to know and couldn’t wait to find out in the recipe instructions, this recipe yields 8 to 9 mini loaf cakes or 12 large muffins.

And hello hi the glaze! It’s a glossy, sweet, super flavorful, toffee-colored, but not toffee-flavored, glaze. It’s toffee-colored from coffee. Yep, there’s coffee in the glaze as well.

The cocoa powder and coffee, along with the chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, and tasty coffee glaze all work together to pack so.much.flavor into these little gluten-free loaf cakes. They may be small, but these loaves sure do pack a punch, as they say. And now I feel very weirdo and grown-up for using that expression.

Anyway.

Soft and dense and squishy and tender and moist. And rich and robust and chocolaty and coffee-yyyyy and nutty. And gluten-free and Passover-friendly and adorable and quick and easy.

Passover with mini mocha loaf cakes - I’m there for it.

Gluten-Free Mocha Chocolate Chip Walnut Mini Loaf Cakes

Yield: 9 loaf cakes/12 large muffins

2 cups almond flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
1/3 cup oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Coffee Glaze:
1 teaspoon coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Water, if needed for thinning

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 9 mini loaf pans very well. (Alternatively, line 12 muffin molds with liners.)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the dissolved coffee, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk everything together until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts last.

4. Using a large ice cream scoop, drop the batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans.

5. Bake loaf cakes for 20-26 minutes, until the cakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out just clean.

6. Let cakes cool in their tins before easing them out of the molds with a knife.

7. For the Glaze: Whisk together the dissolved coffee with the confectioners sugar, oil, and vanilla extract. If glaze is too thick to drizzle, add a teaspoon of water at a time until a thick yet pourable consistency forms. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled loaf cakes.