Gluten and dairy-free Chocolate Coffee Cake with Kallari Chocolate

I have a fun little history with Kallari chocolate.

One of my darlingest lady friends, who I commonly refer to as Muffin on here, went to Ecuador for a semester while we were in college. Amongst the many experiences she came back with, one was literally a sweet treat for her friends; bars of chocolate wrapped in wax paper from a cooperative set where the Andes and the Amazon overlap. Kallari was a small company then, one that strove to independently own and sell their chocolate to make a much healthier living wage and quality product, and I indulged in buying a few bars. Dark, slightly bitter, and incredibly floral and fruity, I didn’t forget the name. Kallari.

Many years later, I found them in a Whole Foods out west and was ecstatic for them. I became a pretty regular buyer.

And then, last year, I was covering the New York Chocolate Show and, while waiting for my photographer, was asked by a man with minimal English to help him get inside, as he was to work the table for Kallari. He’s the guy on the right:

So of course I took on formally indulging in and baking with their chocolate with less than five seconds of thought.

Very dark chocolate is one of my favorite things, so nibbling into an 85% I loved the slight bitterness tempered with just enough sweetness and a remarkably smooth melt, that finished a bit peppery. All of Kallari’s chocolate is creamy — I don’t know how they do it but evidently it has something to do with the fact that they grow, harvest and process the beans into chocolate themselves, which is incredibly rare — so even the 85% felt smooth, with a burst of fruit. The 75% is incredibly floral, and the 70% is as close to milk chocolate as I ever want to come — rich and indulgent and a bit nutty. Love.

So to really let the chocolate just do its thing I thought of another one of my favorite things – Sunday mornings. I adore Sundays, since I’ve only recently acquired them (being an actress for a long time and then a private chef meant weekends were for working). I love waking early, walking Mitra, making some (decaf) espresso and laying out on my mat with my New York Times and a little superball rolling under my feet (thank you, Pilates). And then I love moving quietly in my kitchen as my roommate continues to sleep, listening to the foot traffic on the sidewalk outside my windows, filling the house with sweetness I’ll later share with her and some neighbors. So, for my Kallari treat chocolate and Sunday mornings came together in this easy, just-sweet coffee cake.

Love.

I made this gluten and dairy free, deciding that coconut oil made an obvious choice when paired with chocolate. Because I don’t like my sweets that sweet and chocolate, coconut and cinnamon help us relieve a sweet tooth a bit, all were goin’ in. The result is a fragrant, moist cake that really is a treat for breakfast.

I used my gluten-free cookie flour, but this should be pretty forgiving with a store-bought or your own favorite blend – I’d just err against using anything too fine, as you need some body to this. So make sure you’ve got some gum in there, too, so that the weight of the topping doesn’t sink the center down. And if you’re cool with dairy, butter’s gonna make this even more indulgent. Brown that butter and I don’t even wanna talk about it!!

Unless you’re going to invite me over for Sunday morning coffee cake… then I definitely wanna talk about browning that butter.

I used a combo of the 85% and 70% chocolates here, and I highly suggest you try Kallari out. If you can’t find it where you are, use your favorite fair-trade brand. But try to find Kallari. The New York Times even did a beautiful piece on them. And their website is so stunning it might make you want to run off to the Amazon.

Send me pictures.

Make this any day of the week, and pretend it’s Sunday,

– Jacqueline

Kallari Chocolate Coffee Cake {gluten and dairy free}

This makes one small cake – I used my 6.5″ cast iron skillet. If you wanna use an 8″ or 9″ cake pan, just double what’s here. Easy peasy.

Ingredients: cake

• 1/2 cup sugar (I used coconut)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup almond milk (or your dairy alternative)
• 200g (1 1/2 cups) gluten-free cookie flour or flour of choice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients: crumb topping

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp arrowroot starch
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 Kallari chocolate bar, chopped (about 5oz)

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Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 6″ cake pan or small cast iron skillet with non-stick spray (or butter if you’re using dairy).

In a small bowl, toss together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk the sugar with the coconut oil, until the sugar is dissolved in and the mixture thickens slightly. Add egg and vanilla, and continue to beat until glossy. Sprinkle the dry mixture on top, and fold in.

In another small bowl, combine all topping ingredients but chocolate and work together with your fingertips into large crumbs or clusters. Toss in chocolate.

Pour 1/2 of cake batter into pan and sprinkle with 1/3 crumb mixture. Pour remaining batter over and smooth down, then cover with remaining crumb topping.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the center is set. Cool almost completely before serving.