Daring Bakers: Flourless Chocolate Cake

3 ingredients. Chocolate, butter and eggs. No problem. I totally got this one.

We were supposed to make this when K visited. And no, not for Valentine's Day. He has learned to bribe me and has brought me several blocks of good chocolate. I haven't brought myself to drive an hour to go to a fancy grocery store with fancy chocolate. He ended up with stomach issues as usual so I made it myself later. Means more for me anyway.

So I used one of those for this cake. I was feeling inspired when I was making it so I took lots of pics. I had made the ice cream the week before and was less inspired so I didn't take any pics then. Same with the raspberry sauce. The recipe for the ice cream is below. Figure out your own raspberry sauce. If you want a hint, Magic Bullet + frozen strawberries + sugar.



Anyway... here's my cake making.

Get a nice hunk of chocolate. This is a 1 lb block of 60% Callebaut chocolate. Mmmm I could eat it just like that.
Chop it up. I am a fan of flexible cutting boards.
Don't you want to jump in and go for a swim?
Then add a stick of butter.
Heat in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until it is all melted together like this. They want a double boiler but I like the microwave. The 30 second stirrings is important. Otherwise you'll burn it in the bowl. Trust me. I know.
Then let it sit on the counter cool while you beat up the eggs. Separate 6 eggs. Put the whites in you stand mixer.

Beat until you get to stiff peaks. Then transfer to another bowl. I used the spatula I used to mix up the chocolate to move it. No the streaks don't bother me. They are all getting mixed together anyway.
Then beat up the yolks in the mixer.
This is them beating. It's actually a live action shot. Because I am cool like that. Beat until light and fluffy.
Fold the yolks into the chocolate. Then fold in 1/3 of the whites. Then fold in the rest of the whites. Then put in an appropriate number of greased ramekins, filling about 3/4 of the way. I used cooking spray. I have no patience with melting butter and trying to spread it evenly.
Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.
Look how they rose up just a bit.
Turn out onto a plate.
And top with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.
Don't you with you were here? I have 7 of them sitting on the counter cooling to be frozen for later.



Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.


Vanilla Ice cream

4 cups half and half
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 egg yolks

Heat the half and half with the sugar and vanilla bean. Simmer for about 20 minutes to get all the vanilla goodness. Slowly pour about a cup of the cream over the egg yolks while stirring to temper the eggs. Then return to the pot. Cook on low until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the fridge overnight. Churn in your ice cream maker, however you normally do that. Don't be impatient like me and underchurn it or else when it sets up it will be hard as a rock.




The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Barefoot Bloggers: Meringues Chantilly

The second recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers this month was chosen by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake. I mixed up the recipes and thought this was first so I suspect this is already up even though I moved the posting date out after it posted. I only realized it when I looked at other peoples' postings and wondered why they did the meatballs and spaghetti. Oops. Oh well.

Anyway.....The recipe she chose is Meringues Chantilly. Doesn't that sound fancy?

Now, Meringues Chantilly is just a fancy name. They are pretty much just big macaroons with whipped cream. Those are so much less intimidating. I've made macaroons. And I've made whipped cream.

They are quite easy to make. They take a bit of power to beat up the egg whites and then the cream but that's what the mixer is for. Really. I would not advise making this by hand. I've done angel food cake with a bowl and a whisk before. I wouldn't recommend it. Unless you really want a shoulder work out. On one shoulder. Or you are more coordinate than me and can whisk with both hands. Even if you don't have a pretty Kitchenaid stand mixer and don't want to shell out the money, at least get a hand mixer.

But now that I have a stand mixer which makes these a piece of cake. Just let the mixer go, come back in a couple minutes and just watch it from there. Just don't go away for too long. Or if you are me, clean up a bit. Somehow my counters end up covered in stuff constantly. So put stuff away and wash dishes. Don't go do a load of laundry or you'll have some sweet butter.

Strawberries aren't exactly in season yet. I opted to make a raspberry sauce and to top it with that rather than the strawberries. And that's just for the ones I had at home. The rest went to work. They would turn to mush if they were assembled and whipped cream and raspberry sauce won't make it to work very well. So I just took the meringues. They were a good sugar fix to help get through a morning meeting.

Fridge cleaning Frittata

It was Saturday morning and I was home. I couldn't seem to get going until after noon. But eventually I got up and I was hungry. I started rummaging around the fridge when I found the asparagus and smoked salmon we bought last week.

We had intended to make an omelet with them. I've never actually made a successful omelet. Not that looks like an omelet anyway. It ends up being scrambled eggs with stuff mixed in. Anyway, we didn't get to the asparagus but the smoked salmon was open so I decided to make this frittata. I had some goat cheese and cream cheese in the fridge too so those went in also. The cream cheese gives it a creamy richness whereas the goat cheese gives it a bit of a bite. But use whatever you find in the fridge. That's how my cooking goes anyway.






Fridge Cleaning Frittata

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 oz smoked salmon, cut into thin strips
about 1 tbsp cream cheese
about 1 oz goat cheese
6 eggs, lightly beaten
about 1/4 cup milk

Saute the asparagus in some olive oil, salt and red pepper flake in a nonstick oven safe pan over medium low heat until they start to sizzle and get fragrant. Meanwhile beat together eggs and milk. Add the smoked salmon to the asparagus and stir to combine. Pour the eggs over the pan so that they spread across the pan. Drop the goat cheese and cream cheese in small chunks into the egg. Allow it to continue to cook stovetop for a few minutes. Then transfer to the oven and allow it to finish cooking and start to brown on top, about 15 mins. I put it into an unpreheated oven set to 350 but just check for browning. To remove from pan, use a spatula to make sure it is loose and will release from the pan. Place a plate on top, upside down. Flip the whole thing over and remove the pan. Tada. Sprinkle with chives or parsley or whatever makes you happy.

French Onion Soup

So I've been in the south for almost 6 months now. I'm adapting. A little. Hush puppies are tasty. And I attempted biscuits. Can't quite handle the amount of deep fried stuff they eat down here. But that's OK.

I have adapted to the weather. It's a cold day if the high is below 60. It's been a kinda cold week. The highs have been just under 50! That's practically freezing! If I had to park my car outside there would be frost on it in the mornings sometimes.

So I decided to make soup. French Onion Soup, to be specific. Only trouble with this is, I don't have soup crocks (which I will totally buy one day). The other reason being I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman. Her stuff always looks so good. I'm jealous.

I couldn't do it for a while because I had lotsa food in the fridge. Leftovers from assorted meals. And I figured I probably shouldn't overflow my fridge. Though on the other hand, I had thawed a quart of Turkey Stock. And a lot of my leftovers were... not the most balanced. Lotsa fried stuff. And onions are vegetables. And lots of stock. Stock isn't bad for you. Ignore the crunchy toast and gooey browned cheese on top. And the butter. And all the salt that's in the stock.



French Onion Soup

6 small onions, sliced thin
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 quart chicken stock
1 quart beef stock
2 cloves garlic
a splash of Worcestershire Sauce
Thick sliced french bread or if you are me and realize as you are making the soup you forgot to pick up bread, use a piece of frozen garlic bread from the freezer
Gruyere cheese, shredded or you don't feel like getting out the grater and you have some shredded mozzerella go for it

Brown the onions in the oil and butter. Stir them only on occasion so that they get really really brown. Add the chicken stock, beef stock, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for at least a half an hour. Taste and season. Drizzle the bread with olive oil and toast in the oven until good and crunchy. Place the soup in a bowl, ramekin or any other vessel you want. Place the toast. Arrange piece or pieces as necessary to cover the soup. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake until the cheese is brown and bubbly and ooey and gooey.

Sesame Peanut Noodles

That picture doesn't look that great but it tastes better than it looks, I promise. And I realized I forgot to add the cucumber when I took the pic so I stirred them in later and redished it. Didn't take a pic because I used the same plate and it was all smudgy and gross. Not that that's stopped me from using a pic before.

This was another recipe that I had thought about for that chinese cooking binge I did a while ago but only made a couple of the recipes I had chosen. I'm not sure I even understand that sentence. Oh well. Your fault for reading it. And reading it again trying to make sense of it.

May want to double the sauce next time. There wasn't quite enough. And maybe use that wonderful chili sauce that I mentioned in my Sesame Chicken post instead of the red pepper flake.

This is definitely a serve at room temperature item. So when you keep it in the fridge, you want to let it sit on the counter for a bit or heat it up for a couple seconds in the microwave. I'm a fan of room temperature food.


Cold Sesame Peanut Noodles
based on this recipe from The Kitchn

1 lb rice noodles
1 cucumber, julienned
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted

Sauce:
2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
red pepper flakes

Mix together all the sauce ingredients. Cook the noodles. Rinse in cold water to cool and remove the starch on the outside. Mix with cucumber. Pour the sauce over and toss. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Barefoot Bloggers: Meatballs and Spaghetti

This was the 1st Barefoot Bloggers recipe for the month. It was chosen by BMK of Reservations Not Required. This was a pretty easy recipe. Very straight forward. Only somewhat special ingredient was the parsley, which everything seems to call for. Yet I still don't buy all that often because I never seem to use more than a couple sprigs. But I did this time. We'll see how much parsley I end up throwing out in a few days.

So I'm lazy and they didn't have any mixed ground meat packs so I just used beef. They also didn't have any ground pork or veal packaged up and ready to go. So I went with just beef.

This was a Sunday project so I decided to make some fresh spaghetti to go with it. Well, actually I made 2 lbs of fettucine. I have a pasta maker attachment but I've only used a couple of the shapes so I decided to try another one. I used some of it for this recipe and the rest went in the freezer for future use.

It came out pretty good. I had it with a spinach crouton salad to claim that I ate a balanced meal. Well at least the first one was with a salad.

My only issue was there kinda wasn't enough sauce. I would say I was pretty close to 1 lb of pasta and I had less meat than the recipe called for but there just wasn't really enough sauce. Maybe because I used diced tomatoes and they didn't break down enough and form more sauce. You can see in my pic the pasta seems a bit dry. I thought about beefing it up with a jar of tomato sauce but then.... well I didn't.



Go here for the recipe.

Sesame Chicken

This was a recipe I picked when I was doing my little Chinese food thing a while back but I didn't actually get around to it.

The key to this recipe is the sweet chili sauce. I had looked at it at the asian market quite a few times and wondered if I should try it. There is also a hot chili sauce but my tastes suggest that I prefer the sweet. Maybe after I finish this bottle I will try the hot. Maybe.

This is the sauce. All the little flecks in it are from the chili sauce. No, the drip marks on the side of the bowl where I wiped off my spatula don't bother me. Mmmmm I could drink it. It's got a lot more of a kick than a General Tso's or Sesame chicken that I've ever gotten from a take out place.




Sesame Chicken
based on this recipe at My Kitchen Snippets

Yogurt Pound Cake

This is relatively healthy. For a cake. For me. It really is! Look at the recipe! Only 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup sugar. That's nothing for me! I could use a pound of butter and a pound (2 cups) of sugar for a regular pound cake.

But it also came out really good. It's a medium density cake, not light like an angel food cake, a little denser than a typical cake mix but not as dense as most cakes I've done from scratch, ie Caramel Cake, which was really good but you could only eat a tiny sliver before having a heart attack and having a seizure on the floor. Which is bad for a late night snack like Nigella Lawson does when you live by yourself. Let's try to avoid that. Or at least minimize it.

I brought this cake to work, of course. A lot of people thought it was a lemon cake even though there was no lemon in it. The apricot jam gave it that tartness. I put the jam on while the cake was still hot so that it soaked into the cake a little. Also because it was late and I wanted to go to bed but that's besides the point. I did it because I wanted it to soak in. Really.

I will definitely try yogurt again in other baked goods. This cake came out incredibly moist and tender. Maybe I'll make muffins or something. Or whatever inspires me next. Maybe I'll retry this one again and replace the oil with applesauce and maybe add something else to it to up the flavor.



Yogurt Pound Cake
based on Yogurt Pound Cake by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil


1/4 cup apricot jam
1 teaspoon water

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line and grease a loaf pan.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl.
Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, and vanilla in large bowl.
Stir in dry ingredients. Using rubber spatula, fold in oil. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Place pan on baking sheet.

Place cake in oven and bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool.

Heat and stir jam and water in small container until they melt together. Brush hot mixture over top of cake. Let glaze cool and set. Cut cake crosswise into slices.

Inside Out Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

So I might have made a bit of a mess at work. We were trying something and I might have melted the piece of equipment down. By that I mean I might have melted plastic in a piece of equipment that is not supposed to melt it so that it flowed into every crevice and then it solidified. Needless to say, it is not easy to clean up. And I might have done it twice. And I might have made the same 2 maintenance guys have to pry the thing apart and get it all out.

So they were a tad displeased with me. I figured I better make them something so they don't plot my horribly slow and painful death.

I didn't get home until almost 9 so I didn't have a lot of time as seeing how I go to bed at 10. I needed something quick that doesn't need to be chilled. And I certainly was not going out for a grocery run. I initially intended to make a double batch but I only had 1 cup of peanut butter. Fortunately that was the first thing I decided to measure so I was able to adjust everything else accordingly.

They took about 5 mins to prep, which included preheating the oven and rummaging through my pantry in search of a properly sized chocolate bar so I could just break off pieces.

I managed to bribe them. I'm safe for another day! And if my posts suddenly completely stop in the near future you know where to look.






Inside Out Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
based on EZ Peanut Butter Cookies in Bakewise, by Shirley O Corriher

1 cup chunky peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
12 thin squares of dark chocolate

Mix together peanut butter, brown sugar and egg until uniform. Put half the dough into the bottom of 12 muffin cups, spread so that it covers the bottom. Press 1 piece of chocolate into the center of the cookie dough in each cup. Put the other half of the dough on top of the chocolate, making sure to cover the chocolate. Spread so the top is smooth. Bake at 350 until the edges start to brown and the cookies are cooked through, about 14 minutes. Allow to cool then use a knife to loosen the edges and turn out of pan.

Touch of Grace Biscuits

Like I've mentioned, I have a copy of Bakewise, by Shirley O Corriher.

The book just came out so I guess she is doing some promotional things. Among other things, I'm sure, she's been on NPR couple times. The first time was before Christmas with the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

She was also on Charlotte Talks, which is obviously not broadcasted nationally. Which means 8 million people haven't already made and posted about them. Which means this isn't the 8 millionth post about them that exists online. I actually haven't seen any posts on them!

This was an hour talking about biscuits. mmmm biscuits. One of the good things about living in the South now is biscuits. And hush puppies. Good fresh from the fryer hush puppies. And the fact that I can make just about anything and they go away at work that day, which helps keep me from eating 10 dozen cookies (or other things) in a day.

Anyway, back to the biscuits. Well this was an hour long show about biscuits. I couldn't listen to it live because I had to go to work but they have it online. If you want to listen to it, it's here. They had Shirley, a VP of Bojangles, and a chef.

Needless to say, this left me with a major biscuit craving. I think I need to try the Bojangles biscuits at some point. I drive by 3 that I can think of on may way to work every day so keeping myself from getting them, especially since I had a long week at work this week, was challenging.

So over the weekend I decided to make them. These biscuits are really good. Really light and fluffy and really not that difficult. Don't have to chill dough or try to cut butter in (I've always had so much trouble with that!) and the shortening is really easy to work in

I had some issues forming the biscuits. I covered just about everything in my kitchen with flour. I mean everything. The counter, the island, my computer, the TV, the remote, my rice cooker....

At first I dropped the dough in flour in a small bowl. When I tried to pick it up the dough ran through my fingers back into the bowl. I finally managed to get something into the pan but they all ran together and there were big clumps of flour all over the batter. I ended up scooping it back into the batter and trying again. BUT.... I did eventually figure out how to make it work!

For next time:

• I'll make the dough in a medium bowl.
• Then have a large bowl with a couple cups of flour in it and dump the batter on top, toward one side of the large bowl. Maybe do it in batches, depends on the size of the bowl and all.
• Cover your hands with flour.
• Pull off clumps of batter into the flour and toss back and forth between your hands to coat. The only way to do it is to put both hands in and pass back and forth. Like the way you do when you grab something small out of the oven and it's too hot to hold but you don't have anywhere to put it down because you have a mess in the kitchen. Don't even try to tell me I'm the only one who does this.
• Then place the dough balls into the greased pan.

Touch of Grace Biscuits
from Bakewise, by Shirley O Corriher (with minor modifications because I can't read)

2 cups White Lilly AP flour, sifted
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter flavored shortening
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup AP flour, for shaping
3 tbsp butter, melted

Combine the 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
Add Shortening and work in with your fingers until there are no more large clumps.
Stir in the cream.
Start adding buttermilk slowly.
Keep adding buttermilk until the texture resembles cottage cheese.
Put the flour for shaping in a dish with sloped sides.
Scoop around 1/4 cup scoops of the dough into the flour.
Flour your hands and flip the dough in the flour to coat.
Put biscuits into a greased 9" cake pan. Put them up against each other to help them rise.
Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Remove from oven and brush with melted butter

Mochi / Nian Gao

I've been wanting to know how to make these (and what they were called for that matter) for ages. Usually they are filled with sesame paste. I made them with red bean paste. Don't ask why, it'll just be a long and confusing story that really has no point.

I'm not actually sure these are mochi. Wikipedia is telling me otherwise but I don't know where to find the real name for it. I've been wondering how to make these for a while but it's really hard to find a recipe when you don't know what it's called. This recipe on My Kitchen is the closest I've gotten. Yay for Flickr. Anyway, mochi may be another name for it, though the only fillings I've seen for it was black sesami paste and a peanut filling.

These are a relatively typical asian dessert. It has a mildly sweet flavor, but like they say, 'not too sweet.' They are mild, small bites, not a 500 calorie sugar bomb. The thing with asian desserts is they aim to be not too sweet.

So at the asian market the closest I could find was this can that was just called 'Red Bean'. But it had sugar and stuff in it so I figured it was, at least flavorwise, what I was looking for. I pureed it to make red bean paste. This is a looser version of what is often in moon cakes and other asian desserts.




Mochi

2 cups glutinous rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1 can sweetened red bean

Puree the can of red bean until it forms a smooth paste.
Mix the cornstarch and rice flour together in a large bowl.
Slowly pour the water over the dry ingredients while mixing.
Mix in oil and milk.
Knead until the dough comes together. To help keep the dough from sticking, keep your hands wet.
Shape into balls.
Press your thumb into the balls to form a dimple. Fill the dimple with red bean paste. Seal the dough around the red bean paste.
Roll in your hand to make a round ball.
Bring a pot of water to a boil.
Drop the balls into the water, only enough for one layer in the pot. Do multiple batches.
Once they float, they are done.

Honey Almond Shrimp

When I decided I wanted to make something Chinese-ish, I didn't have anything specific in mind. I started looking through my reader to see what other people made. A lot of them seemed difficult. A lot of ingredients I didn't have. There are a fair number of deep fried items. I thought about taking out my Fry Daddy but in the end I didn't do it.

These are definitely not authentic. But they looked good. I like sweet things. In case you didn't notice.









Honey Almond Shrimp
based off this recipe at RasaMalaysia

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg white
1/2 cup corn starch (for coating the prawn)
Oil for frying

Mix together mayo, honey and lemon juice.
Lightly toast the almonds.
Combine the shrimp with the egg white. Toss to coat. Add S&P.
Toss in cornstarch to coat.
Fry until shrimp are just cooked through.
Combine everything and toss to combine.
Serve with white rice.

Scallion Pancakes

Chinese new year was sometime not that long ago. So over the weekend I decided to try and make some semi-authentic chinese food. I know, it's not much and quite late but oh well. It's kinda my first attempt at chinese food. It's always intimidated me a bit because I don't know the seasonings and flavors.

We would always get scallion pancakes whenever we went into Flushing when I was little. I'd never tried making them before. They are actually quite easy and not fussy. Take a little bit of time but other than that, not much trouble.

You cook them so the outside is crisp but the inside is chewy. It's got a nice light oniony flavor that is oh so good. They are usually served with soy sauce to dip it in but I ate them plain. They are flavorful enough without the extra salt kick. They were good enough for me to eat the entire batch. Next time I'll double it.







Scallion Pancakes
based on this recipe from SmashingCook

1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tbsp of olive oil for dough
1/2 cup of boiling water (more or less)

4 tbsp of olive oil for sauteing minced garlic
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup of finely sliced scallion

Saute the garlic in olive oil for a couple minutes to infuse the oil and cook the garlic until it just starts to brown.
Set aside the garlic with the scallion.

Combine the flour and salt.
Mix in the 1/2 tbsp olive oil and water.
Knead until the dough comes together. Allow to rest for at least 15 minutes.
Break off pieces of dough and roll out to about 1/4 inch.
Brush with garlic oil.
Sprinkle on some garlic and scallions.
Roll up into a tube and coil the tube into a circle.
Let rest while you make the rest.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Take the first coil and roll it so that it sticks together, forms a pancake and has a uniform thickness.
Fry both sides until golden brown.