Zan's Date & Nut Torte

My friend Zan made this for a party and it was so good she had to share the recipe with several of her friends. It is a chocolaty, nutty, meringue dessert and goes beautifully with strawberries & cream (or ice-cream). The quantities for a 10" tins are in directions. Cadbury dark Old Jamaica chocolate is an Australian brand with rum and raisins, but any really good quality dark chocolate would be fine.

• Ready In: 1 hr 5 mins
• Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

• 200  g  almonds, with skins on
• 200  g pitted dates
• 200  g dark chocolate (Cadbury Old Jamaican is very nice)
• 4  egg whites
• 1⁄3 cup caster sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180degC (350degF) and cut circle of baking paper to fit bottom of 8" springform tin, lightly grease or spray sides of tin - quantities for 10" below.
2. Break chocolate into bits, put into blender or food processor, with almonds, this will be very noisy.
3. Blend until almonds are ground, but not too finely, you might still have some chunks of chocolate, but that's OK.
4. Chop dates into smallish pieces.
5. Beat egg whites in large bowl until they start to stiffen; add castor sugar gradually as you continue whipping.
6. Quickly fold dates, chocolate and nuts into egg whites, spoon mixture into tin and bake for 45 (8 inches) 50 mins (10 inches) in middle of oven - top should have a solid but not rock hard crust.
7. Turn oven off, leave cake in there for about an hour with door slightly open to cool.
8. Turn cake out; put in very cool place or in fridge overnight (best made the night before, or at least quite few hours before).
9. For a 10" springform tin, quantities are 250g almonds, 250g dates, 250g chocolate, 6 egg whites, 1/2 cup sugar.