Lesson's in Chocolate

Today is the last day of the month and tomorrow I get to start working on our Challenge for October. In recap of our Flourless Chocolate cake Month... I LOVED the Chocolate Nemesis and just LIKED the Ultimate Flourless Chocolate cake.

Okay, I have to admit that I've made the Chocolate Nemesis 7 times this month. Although 5 of those were half batches and 3 of the batches we gave away... But still, 7 times, it is that easy to make! And THAT good. I've made them in 5 different pans and they've worked well each time. As long as you cook it long enough it's hard to ruin! (by the Way, a friend with a Convection oven said that the time was more accurate in her oven)

So I've tried different chocolate each time. The first time I used a mixture of Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Squares, Hershey's Special Dark Bars, and Nestle's Semi Sweet Chips. I went for an equal 1/3 of each. And as you might have read about, it was FANTASTIC, not too sweet, nice and dark, but not to bitter or heavy. Another time I used all Hershey's Special Dark Bars and the flavor was nice... But too sweet for me, and a little too pudding, dense. I also tried just a mixture of Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Squares and Nestle's Semi Sweet Chips. It was okay, not quite dark enough, and tad too much of that Chippy taste I mentioned in the Ultimate Flourless Chocolate cake. Next I tried the best ever. Simply using Bakers Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Squares. It was the Best EVER, not just taste, but texture as well. It was simply amazing! The only issue with the baking Squares is they are double the cost of chips! So I next tried Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. It was fine, the flavor was nice, but still just too Chippy. I guess I just don't like whatever they put in chips to make them chips! I like the bars and Squares much better. It's hard to describe, but you can TELL that it was made from Chocolate chips. Anyway, it was also much more thick and more fudge/truffle texture, like the Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake we made earlier. In fact I'm going to re-try that cake with the baking chocolate to see if I like the texture and flavor better. So next time there is a sale on Baker's chocolate you KNOW I'm going to be buying out the store! The only thing I haven't tried is using a substitute of just plain Baking Cocoa and butter, but I don't know if I'll bother. But I do plan on trying other brands of the Bittersweet Baking Bar... I'll let you know!

Strawberry Coulis

So the final item on our September Challenge for the month was a fruit Coulis (or dessert sauce). I put this off for a few reasons. I kept forgetting to get fresh fruit, or when I did remember it wasn't fresh. And also because I don't really like fruit. I like the chocolate cakes by themselves and would make the cake, forget the coulis and by the time I remembered the cake was gone! BUT tonight was different. I was determined to make the coulis, and not wait until the last day of the month either. So I made another batch of the Chocolate Nemesis (my 4th this month) and made little cakes to take around the neighbors that had brought us goodies when we first moved in. And I thought, perfect, I'll make some Coulis to go along with the give aways so I don't have 2 Cups of Coulis to eat myself! Of course I knew my Husband (fruit lover) would finish it off for me, and I DO need to be less selfish and make more stuff just for him. Anyway, Here is the recipe...

Coulis
makes 2 Cups

12 oz raspberries (I used Strawberries, chopped, and my friend at My ABC's used blueberries)
1/4 tsp orange zest
1/2 C water
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C sugar



In a medium-sized sauce pot over medium heat, combine the berries, orange zest, water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook for an additional 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree with a blender or handheld mixer. Strain into desired small bowl.

And the results? Magnificent! I loved it. The tang/sour from the lemon juice mixed with the fruit was the perfect combination and compliment for the chocolate cake! In fact it was so good I "licked" my plate clean! Now I'm glad I have leftovers, and will be making it again when it runs out. I think it will be good on my Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream. And of course my Husband loved it!

My favorite dessert of the Summer

So a few months ago my mom told me about this new Lemon Sour Cream Pie recipe she got. She and my sister both raved about it so I got the recipe. But I did nothing with it. Oh I meant to make it, with a new baby, moving etc... It just never got made. But this summer my husband went to another country for the summer for work and while taking care of 4 kids certainly kept me busy I also ended up baking, A LOT. That's what I do, when I'm sad or miss him, or even upset. I bake. Lucky for me he usually eats it all. I ate more than I should have this summer... ANYWAY one week in particular was distressful and I ended up baking about 6 things in 3 days and one of those days I made this pie (also lucky for me my kids enjoy baking, so they "helped" and we really had fun those days). And let me tell you if you like lemons or a good sour treat this is FANTASTIC! I DID let the kids have some, they helped after all, but I didn't share much, I ate the whole thing in a week! It became my summer favorite. I've made 4 of these pies in the last 6 weeks! Anyway... If you ever take the time it's worth it.

Sour Cream Lemon Pie
Cooked 9 inch pie crust
1 C sugar
3 ½ Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp lemon rind grated
½ C fresh lemon juice
3 egg yolks slightly beaten
1 C milk
¼ C butter
1 C sour cream
Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon rind, juice, egg yolks and milk in sauce pan, and cook over med heat until thick. Stir in the butter (I use frozen butter to help it cool) and cool to room temp. Stir in the Sour cream and Pour into pie shell. Refrigerate and serve with Whipped cream. (I usually have my first slice after about 4 hours, but it is definitely more set and better the next day)

The Ultimate Flourless chocolate cake part 2

Okay, So I couldn't let a CAKE beat me and I tried again. The last one was so bad I actually THREW IT AWAY!!! Unheard of for me. This time I used Ghirardelli's semi sweet chocolate and CAREFULLY watched the temperature. I think I got it this time. The texture is incredibly dense, creamy, thick and pretty even from the center to the edge. And the flavor is chocolaty, not just bitter. The best thing I can compare it to is a Truffle. It feels like a truffle, like eating an entire bag of truffles in one sitting. While I like truffles (I'd even say I like them a lot), I don't want an entire Slice of truffles, let alone an entire cake. I will admit it's good, but not even close to the perfection of the Chocolate Nemesis for me. But hey, that's just me. If you LOVE truffles you'll like this cake. Although I'm not sure if it should even be called cake. More like Truffle if the shape of a cake. One Idea I had was to cut it up, roll it in Cocoa and just say I made funny shaped truffles! Another one I'm thinking of is to chop some of it up and trying it in some ice cream, not The Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream, just a simple chocolate (I think that vanilla is a waste of ice cream... Just me, I know it's the most popular flavor ever, but I don't even like vanilla with mix in's or vanilla based shakes....)

So other than watching the temperature the best advice I can say is: Take care to pick your chocolate carefully. While the Ghirardelli's was a huge improvement over the baking chocolate/semi sweet mixture of last time this time the taste was too chocolate chip-y. I know, I'm not making any sense, but if you eat a lot of chocolate you know what I'm talking about. Pick a chocolate you REALLY love. Like I love Cadbury, or even Dove. I like Ghirardelli's in my cookies, but not just for eating like a bar, a dense, creamy thick bar... I might also try adding in some flavor, I like dark chocolate ameretto so I might pick my favorite dark chocolate bar and add a few drops of ameretto flavoring (1 or 2 drops, you don't want it to be too over powering). Anyway, as you can see by the pictures, this one turned out much better than my last attempt at this cake, but I can't say I'll ever make it again.

The Ultimate Flourless chocolate cake

So this weekend my friend Duff ABC's and I continued our September Challenge of Flourless Chocolate cake. I STILL don't have rasberries (I forgot my list when I went to the grocery store and had to go off memory, Rasberries weren't the only thing I forgot) so I havn't made the Coulis yet. But I sure wish I had, this cake needed something sweet. both recipies call for bitter sweet chocolate. I didn't have any bittersweet baking chocolate around last weekend so I created my own chocolate medly. 1/3 unsweetened bakers chocolate, 1/3 Hersheys special dark bars and 1/3 Nestle's semi sweet chips. My friend at Duff ABC's said that her cake turned out a little sweet last week, while I felt mine was perfection. So I was going to try to use the same chocolate bar's she did this time around to try to figure out if it was just that the chocolate she used was sweeter, but then thought better. What better comparison of the recipes than using the same mixture as last time. So I again did 1/3 of each time of chocolate. And even though the recipes and baking styles are similar, the results couldn't have been more different.

The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake

serves 12 to 16

8 Lrg eggs, cold

1 lbs bittersweet chocolate

1/2 lbs unsalted butter

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners¢ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.

Okay, honestly I did make a mistake. As you can see I let my temperature get too hot before I pulled the cake out. I let the temperature get a little too high, as you can see from the picture mine got to about 170 when I pulled it out, instead of 140. Which resulted in the outside edge and top being rubbery and tasteless. Also I made the mistake of eating a slice the night I made this. The center hadn't set yet, so it was goopy and tasteless. After letting it set overnight the texture (of the center) is alot like a truffle, thick really thick, but the flavor didn't improve. Way to Cocoa-y. Maybe if I had only used the chocolate bars instead of the baker unsweetened chocolate the flavor would have been better. It was like eating straight cocoa, bitter. It at least needed some salt and either sweeter chocolate, or some sugar. I would be willing to try this recipe again, but even with a better flavor and not over cooking the edge I don't think it could surpass the Chocolate Nemisis. It was very simple, and quick, but I was unimpressed with the results. And I'm more into imidiate satisfaction, the Chocolate Nemisis was good from the first bite to the last, where this one had the overnight waiting time, and still wasn't perfect. In fact when I went to get another slice today (so I could report on if it was better- my first draft was full of really bad things, but then it set overnight and slightly redeemed itself) I didn't want to eat it! Not want to each Chocolate!!! Always a bad sign. And although it was suprisingly better than last night it, honestly, couldn't have been worse, and still wasn't great. THAT SAID. I promise to try it one more time to be fair, and I will let you know.

Trifle

So I baked a cake last week. Actually my 2 year old got into the pantry and opened a cake mix. So I decided to make cupcakes to celebrate my oldest first day of 1st Grade, she loves any excuse to celebrate. But I didn't want to be responsible for eating an entire batch of cupcakes, I prefer all the other goodies I have around the house. So I baked a 6 inch round cake and made 12 cupcakes, perfect~ I thought I'd use the 6 inch cake to celebrate my Husbands return from India (again, my oldest felt we needed to have a coming home party). So I put the cake in the freezer and we enjoyed the cupcakes. Then on Saturday morning I got out the cake to thaw so we could decorate it that afternoon. After Nap/Quite time I went into the kitchen and looked around for the cake... It was missing! I asked the kids about it and low the 4 1/2 year old RAN to his room. Being a keen mother I caught onto the fact that he was hiding something and went upstairs after him! He had unwrapped the cake and was eating it like a huge muffin. The entire top half was gone, and all that was left was bite marks! So there went the coming home cake idea! So today I cut off the bite marks, made up some marshmallow frosting and made my first Trifle. I've always been interested in these desserts, and since it seems that anything goes I went for it! I used the cake, the marshmallow frosting, toffee bits, and threw in a couple of chocolate chips for the fun of it. So now we have a coming home Trifle for the "party".

Here is the frosting recipe, easy and delicious and great of cakes, cupcakes, frosting and Graham crackers!

Marshmallow Frosting
2 Lrg egg whites
¼ C plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract
Put eggs whites, sugar and corn syrup in the top of a double boiler over boiling water and beat with a hand mixer until soft peaks form- about 4 mins. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl, add vanilla and beat with electric mixer with whisk attachment on Med high till soft peaks form- about 30 sec.

Chocolate Nemesis

For our September Challenge Duff ABC's and I decided to try out flour-less Chocolate cakes and Coulis. Today my Husbands plane home from India was delayed and I was feeling sad. When I feel sad I bake. So I got a jump start on this months challenge (after all it IS officially September, barely). I didn't have the stuff for the Coulis so I'll make that next time, we're trying out 2 different recipes for this cake to determine which one we like best. The first on the chopping block is Chocolate Nemesis from the River Cafe Blue cookbook. After looking around the Internet it seems that his recipe has a history of not turning out for those brave enough to try it. So after reading some advice online I dug into the recipe. Here is the Link to My ABC's Chocolate Nemesis.

Chocolate Nemesis
Serves 10-12



24 oz bitter-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
10 whole eggs
2 3/4 C + 2 Tbls OR 3C - 2 Tbs sugar
2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C water

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Pick your pan sizes and line the bottom with parchment paper and the sides with Pam. You can use a 12 inch, or 2 8 inch pans. Or I used a 6 inch and a 10 inch to experiment with different sizes.
2. Heat 2/3 of the sugar in a small pan with the water until the sugar has completely dissolved to a syrup. I actually let it boil for quite some time, letting it thicken up a bit.
3. Place the chocolate and butter in the hot syrup and stir to combine until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Beat the eggs with a third of the sugar until the volume quadruples-this will take at least 10 minutes in an electric mixer.
5. Add warm chocolate mixture to the eggs and continue to beat, more gently, until completely combined- about 20 seconds.
6. Pour into the cake tin and place in a water bath. It is vital for even baking. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set. Let it cool in the tin before turning out.

To get the cake out of a regular cake pan when are ready to serve the cake, loosen around the edges of the pan with a hot knife. You can place the pan on a hot stove burner for 45 seconds or so to warm the bottom. But with the parchment paper I didn't need to do that. Place a plate on top and invert the pan. Tap bottom gently with the butt of a knife and the cake should drop. Remove pan, peel back parchment, and voila!

Okay, now the issues, changes and discrepancies...

The first issue was converting the UK measurements into something us Non-metric Americans could easily use. That was easy enough. Then the Chocolate mixture sank to the bottom when I added it to the eggs. It took awhile to incorporate with the egg, and they fell quite a bit, next time I would keep beating the eggs on low while slowly pouring in the chocolate to see if that helped.

Here was the biggest discrepancy: the length of cooking time. I think the recipe assumes you have a convection oven, which cooks at a lower temp and for shorter. So to make up for that you can add a bit of temp (go up to 350) and time. I kept the low temp (325) and added a LOT of time. The small pan went for 50 mins and the larger pan for 70 mins. If you use the recommended 12 inch pan I would assume it would take 80-90 mins. If you use 8 inch pans try 60 mins.

You can use a springform pan, but I wouldn't recommend it. It is hard to do the water bath, even when you wrap the pan with foil it tends to have leaking problems.

Okay, taste and texture. MMMMMmmmmmmmmm. The texture was magnificent... Super moist from the center to the outer edge, with a slight crunch from the crust on top (bottom once it's turned out). Soft, thick and melt in your mouth... Not mushy, airy, grainy or goopy. And the taste was fabulous, especially if you like dark chocolate... Which I DO. I was totally pleased with this recipe and didn't have any of the issues I had read about online, So I think the time and temp was the biggest culprit for them. If you have a convection oven the regular recipe should be just about perfect. Let me know....

It didn't need anything but I tried both crushed Carmel (I tried to make it myself -- more on that later) and also Strawberry ice cream (I HAD to try a slice of both the small and large cake to compare). I actually liked the sweet airiness of fresh whipping cream with it (my third slice). Make sure you slice it THIN because it is dense and rich and you don't need much to feel full.