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.