Chocolate Almond Cake-Brownie [it's a thing]

NOTE: If you’re coming here from the Epicurious “4 Levels Of Brownies” YouTube video, the picture above will look different.

Yield: 4-8 servings

Ingredients

• 7 ounces (200 g) Almond Paste

• ¼ cup (60 g) sugar

• 4 ounces (113 g) butter, plus extra to grease the pan

• 2 tablespoon (40 g) honey

• 3 eggs

• 2 tablespoons (30 g) amaretto liqueur, such as Luxardo

• 1/3 cup (50 g) flour

• ¼ cup (30 g) cocoa powder

• Kosher salt, to taste

• 1 handful chocolate chips

• ½ cup sliced almonds

• Confectioners’ sugar

Recipe

Mix together the almond paste and the sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter and use a hand mixer to cream the mixture. This is an important step! Creaming things results in lighter, less dense texture!

Add the honey to the batter and mix to incorporate.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing fully to incorporate before adding the next egg.

Add the amaretto, the flour, the cocoa powder, and the salt to the batter and mix.

Grease the inside of two 4-inch by 1¾-inch springform molds with butter. You can peel back the butter wrapper and use it like a giant crayon if that’s easiest. Sprinkle the flour into one of the molds. Tip the mold and rotate it to coat the interior with flour. Pour the remaining flour into the other mold and repeat. Discard any remaining flour.

Place the molds on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet and divide the batter evenly between the molds, tossing in a small handful of chocolate chips after filling each mold halfway.

Preheat an oven to 350˚F. Bake for 20 minutes. Test it after 18 minutes. You should see a little wobble in the center of the cake when you jiggle the baking sheet.

To finish, sprinkle the sliced almonds on top of the chocolate brownie. Then put the confectioners’ sugar in a small fine-mesh sieve and gently tap it over the cake to give it the pretty white snowy topping. Or not. Your call.