This months’ Daring Baker’s challenge wasn’t really all that much of a challenge for me because I’ve already made flourless chocolate cake, so I was familiar with it. Of course, this one is very different from the one I made. This one, popularized by Chef Wan, is dense and fudgy and brownie-like, mine was more light, delicate and melt-in-your-mouth soft. Flourless chocolate cake is a rich, indulgent dessert and is great for celiacs and people who just want to avoid gluten/wheat as well. Details on the creators of this challenge, as they said on the super-secret Daring Baker’s forum, are as follows:
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.
We had to make the cake and an ice cream to serve with it. Being that I don’t have an ice cream maker, I used this link combined with the below recipe. The heart shape was created by using cookie cutters to cut the finished cake into smaller cakes, then topped/sided with the fresh ice cream. Alternately, you can use a heart shaped pan, or a few heart shaped pans. Either way the result is yum! I used 8 ounces Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, 4 ounces Baker’s semi-sweet and 4 ounces Baker’s German (sweet) chocolate. This cake ends up tasting exactly like the chocolate you use, so keep that in mind. My cake had a rich, sweet taste cut with a slight bitterness from the bittersweet chocolate, so it wasn’t too sweet. If you use all bittersweet, your cake will be exactly that. There is no added sugar in this cake, so just remember that when choosing your chocolate.
Talk about simple. Three ingredients, and no time to complete it. The ice cream was a bit more challenging, but hey, thats part of the fun. I know, next time I should really take pictures of the process. I tried, but the picture of my melting chocolate didn’t come out so I threw in the proverbial towel.
If you do make the ice cream, just remember that using the vanilla bean isn’t required, but it adds those cool black vanilla seeds in the ice cream and adds a better flavor than extract.
CHOCOLATE VALENTINO
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 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
Directions:
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.
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.
Want to see the ice cream recipe? Well, then ….
Dharm’s Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)
Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream’s fat content by heating ¼ cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted – cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.
1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)
I'm Marilla. A 30-something artist, hobby baker, home canning enthusiast, gardener, DIY-er, wife, mommy of a baby boy and dog mom (to another baby boy) from New York. 
Nicely done – it looks and sounds fantastic!
Thank you 🙂
That cake and ice cream looks divine. I need to try make this ASAP!
I’m curious – does the cake need to be served immediately, or can be kept for a while? XD I’m so tempted to make that as part of my future weekly college bento stash.
Mine kept for a few days, in a tupperware container. It loses moisture little by little, and its never the same as the first day, but its still edible. 🙂
Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and
you are just too great. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you’re stating and
the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it sensible.
I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually a terrific website.
I do believe all of the ideas you’ve presented for
your post. They’re really convincing and can certainly work.
Still, the posts are very short for newbies. May you please
lengthen them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.
If you want to increase your knowledge just keep visiting this site and be updated with the latest news update
posted here.
Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all folks you really recognise what you’re talking approximately!
Bookmarked. Please also discuss with my web site =).
We could have a hyperlink alternate arrangement
between us
Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after browsing through a few of the articles I realized it’s new to me.
Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking
back frequently!
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you really realize what you’re speaking about!
Bookmarked. Kindly additionally consult with my web site =).
We may have a link exchange contract between us
I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here.
The sketch is tasteful, your authored material stylish.
nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness
over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside
case you shield this increase.
I like what you guys are up too. This kind of clever work and coverage!
Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve included you guys to
my own blogroll.
I like this website very much so much fantastic information.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you
relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your
intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
Hello every one, here every person is sharing these kinds of know-how,
so it’s fastidious to read this website, and I used to
visit this webpage daily.
I have learn a few excellent stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking for revisiting.
I surprise how much attempt you put to create one of these great informative web site.
Well I really enjoyed reading it. This tip offered by
you is very effective for correct planning.
I seriously love your website.. Pleasant colors & theme.
Did you build this amazing site yourself? Please reply
back as I’m planning to create my very own blog and
want to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is named.
Cheers!
I as well conceive hence, perfectly written post!
These are truly wonderful ideas in about blogging.
You have touched some fastidious points here. Any way keep up wrinting.
Loving the info on this web site, you have done outstanding job on the blog posts.
Hey I am so happy I found your website, I really found
you by error, while I was looking on Askjeeve for something else,
Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say cheers for a tremendous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to
go through it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it
and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will
be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the excellent job.
Ahaa, its good discussion on the topic of this article here at this weblog, I have read all
that, so now me also commenting here.
You ought to be a part of a contest for one of the greatest
blogs online. I’m going to recommend this site!
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been doing
a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me lunch
due to the fact that I discovered it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah,
thanx for spending the time to talk about this issue
here on your blog.
I am no longer certain the place you are getting your info, but great topic.
I needs to spend a while studying much more or
figuring out more. Thank you for fantastic information I was
searching for this information for my mission.
Thank you for every other excellent article. Where else may anybody
get that type of information in such an ideal method of writing?
I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m at the search for such information.
Great article! This is the kind of info that are supposed to be shared around the internet.
Shame on the search engines for now not positioning this
publish higher! Come on over and consult with my web site .
Thank you =)
For hottest information you have to visit world-wide-web and on world-wide-web I
found this web page as a best web page for newest updates.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your
site. You have some really good articles and I think I would be a good asset.
If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to
write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine.
Please blast me an email if interested. Thanks!
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme
of this website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times
it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and visual appeal.
I must say you have done a fantastic job with this.
In addition, the blog loads very quick for me on Internet
explorer. Outstanding Blog!