For the Love of Chocolate (Daring Baker’s Challenge, Feb. ’09)

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. The recipe itself comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan.

For those who don’t know, flourless chocolate cakes, in addition to obviously being gluten-free, typically are based on chocolate custard (which is nothing more than dairy, eggs and in this case, chocolate). The custard is aerated with an egg foam, and the heat of the melted chocolate actually stabilizes the protein matrix of the cake so that it can hold its shape (since the cake has virtually no starch). The original cake is served with whipping cream, but the Challenge was changed slightly to include making home-made ice cream of any flavor (although two recipes were provided, which I will post below).

I was very excited to be working with chocolate because…what the heck can really go wrong when chocolate is your chosen medium?! Factor in the ice cream, and it’s a win-win no matter what happens.

The Equipment:

A pan – this cake is traditionally made in a heart-shaped pan, but we were told that any pan with a surface area of 50 inches would work well, including 6x8, 7x7, an 8 inch springform pan, as well as smaller pans and ramakins. I decided to go with a normal-sized muffin pan.

An instant read thermometer (recommended) – this is not required, but it is very helpful because it is hard to look at the cake and know that it is done but not over-done. The recipe gives you a temperature to shoot for, which is much easier and eliminates a lot of guesswork if you are using a pan other than the ones described in the recipe.

The Ingredients:

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of chocolate, roughly chopped (I used a mixture of semi-sweet and bittersweet, but you can use whatever variety is your favorite. This cake is only as good as the chocolate you put into it, so use good quality chocolate!)
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter (I used salted because it was all I had and I didn’t want to go shopping. It was no biggie)
5 large eggs separated

This recipe only has 3 ingredients, exceedingly simple, but such lush rewards!

1. Melt the chocolate with the butter. If you are a cautious fellow, that means following the bracketed instructions provided by the original recipe and doing the whole 9 yards with the double boiler. If you are like me, with one eye always on the clock, you’ve probably never fooled with a double boiler in your life. Here’s an easier way and it worked just dandy: put the butter and chocolate into a microwave safe bowl, and heat on high for no longer than 30 second increments at a time, keeping careful watch.

Here it is during and after, and it came together beautifully. [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 the chocolate butter mixture cooled, I greased my muffin pan with some of the remaining stick of butter. I did not fool with the parchment because it was a muffin pan, but I would recommend it for anything larger [butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.]

3. Then I separated the egg yolks from the egg whites and put them into two bowls. I put the egg whites directly into my mixer’s bowl because I knew they had to be whipped. The rest of the cake I mixed by hand because everything was melted and liquid, and the cake turned out none the worse for wear.

4. I whipped the egg whites until stiff peaks formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).


6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate, a little at a time. Make sure the chocolate isn’t too hot, or the eggs will cook. I tempered my eggs with a little melted chocolate first, and then added them.

7. Then I folded in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds until there was no white, but not so much that the batter deflated.

8. Next, I poured batter into my muffin pan, about 3/4 of the way full (fill this much for any pan you use), and baked at 375F/190C



9. I ended up baking for about 17 minutes, until an instant thermometer read 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie. But try to use a thermometer because any cake tester will appear wet.


10. I then cooled for 10 minutes on a rack and depanned.

I decided that I didn’t want just plain cakes, so I whipped up a quick chocolate ganache to spread over them. I just eyeballed it, but this is roughly the proportions I used:

15 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 tsp butter

½ C light cream

I heated the butter and cream to just before boiling, and then took it off the heat and poured it over the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, stirring until all the lumps were gone.

Then, I spread the ganache over the cakes.

The ice cream recipes provided to us are posted below, but I didn’t want plain old vanilla. I decided that a pistachio ice cream would go wonderfully with the chocolate, and look sharp next to the dark brown. So I gathered pistachios, eggs, cream, sugar…just kidding!! I gathered Breyers out of my freezer.

I barely had time to make the cake, much less homemade ice cream. But my feeling is that sometimes you have to pick your battles. If you can’t do everything, you pick the most important thing. For me, for this recipe, it was the cake. I doubted a from-scratch, pure chocolate cake would suffer much from being paired with store-bought ice cream, and I was right. Not only were the flavors delectable, but I don’t think anyone eating it would think there was anything lacking with the omission of homemade ice cream. I would like to try to make homemade ice cream eventually, but it’ll have to wait for a time and recipe where ice cream is the focus, not just garnish.

I’d give this recipe an 8 out of ten. Outstanding flavor. Mine was a little dry however, I either overwhipped the eggs or wasn’t vigilant enough in watching it bake. But honestly, covered in ganache and paired with ice cream, I’d still rate it higher than a lot of recipes I’ve tried. My Grand Marnier cake, which I believe was one of my very first blog posts, is very similar, although not entirely gluten-free if that is a necessity for anyone. I think this cake would benefit from a little booze in the ganache and or cake, in about the same amounts as the Grand Marnier cake (about 3 tbls for the cake, and 2-4 for the ganache depending on taste). I think a lot of liquors would work well with this type of cake and ganache. As anyone who sampled my cake knows, Grand Marnier goes fabulously. I have a sneaking suspicion that Frangelico will too, so that is next on my list. I also think Amaretto, Kahlua and Bailey’s are good bets as well.

Here are the two ice cream recipes as promised:

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 1/4 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)

Wendy's Ice Cream Recipe
Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla

Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too).
Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer
Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.

The fine print: 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.

Tuiles with Lemon Pudding and Blueberries

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

My very first Daring Baker’s Blogroll (http://www.thedaringbakers.com/) monthly challenge! Although I was excited about this challenge, January was a very busy month for me as I had several grants to write. Predictably, I wasn’t able to give this challenge my full attention, and left it until the very last minute, with the result that my tuiles weren’t quite what I had hoped for. I originally had dreams of being super fancy, maybe pairing my tuiles with a homemade mango mousse, but it was not to be. In the end, I have to say that I was only moderately pleased with the result, since I cut a lot of corners (literally as well as figuratively!). However, the recipe worked well enough that I can envision making tuiles again, and being infinitely more pleased with the results.

For those who do not know (neither did I until this challenge), tuiles are a lightweight, dry, crispy French cookie. The name actually means “tile” in French, because its traditional shape has the slight curve reminiscent of old-fashioned roof tiles. To my eyes, traditional tuiles look kind of like Pringles potato chips, although I’m sure pastry chefs everywhere would cringe at the comparison. They can actually be made into a variety of shapes, almost anything you want. The catch, however, is that the cookies can only be molded into shapes while they are still warm which, given their thinness, isn’t a whole lot of time.

There are a few different ways to make tuiles, but because they need to be so thin, spreading them over a stencil seemed the easiest to me. There are a number of sites that carry commercially available pre-cut tuiles molds (for example http://www.bakedeco.com/dept.asp?id=170). After some careful consideration (and a lack of time and budget) I decided to make my own round stencil, and make cup-shaped tuiles that could be filled. To that end, I bought a silicone mat, and traced a large circular cookie cutter to make 6 holes. I also grabbed a few little tartlet pans (which were only $ 0.59 each at BB&B) to use as molds.

We were given a choice of 3 recipes on the Daring Baker’s site, and I chose the basic sweet tuiles recipe taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck. I, as it so happens, am NOT a master chef by any stretch of the imagination, and making this recipe underscores the tremendous amount of talent such baker-artists have.

Recipe:Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)

Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)

60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)

65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour

1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice

Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Directions:

Preheat oven: 180C / 350

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. If so desired, mix a small part of the batter with cocoa or food coloring and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the tuiles.

Bake in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

The batter came together quite easily, and spread easily. My stencil worked like a charm, and my cookies held their shape wonderfully. I kept a careful watch on them in the oven, I think I ended up baking them about 7 minutes or so. But when they came out, that’s when the problems started. The cookies set up faster than I thought they would, mostly I think because I overcooked them a tad, so the edges set up almost the instant they were pulled out of the oven. The tartlet-pans-as-molds didn’t work quite the way I had envisioned, no doubt because the cookies were already partially set, so I ended up with tuiles that were only vaguely curved as opposed to the tart-shaped tuiles I had pictured in my head. And the second half of my batch set up before I even got the chance to mold them. But, the cookies tasted good – light and crisp. Several recipes online have additives: orange zest/juice; lemon zest/juice; almond extract; ground almonds, etc. I think that, if I repeat this recipe, I’d like to add a citrus flavor, either lemon, lime or orange.

The instructions for this month’s challenge said to pair the tuiles with something “light and fruity.” I bandied around several (labor intensive) ideas before I finally settled on lemon pudding with blueberry garnish, because I am a sucker for a lemon-blueberry combination. Then I downgraded it to lemon curd instead of pudding, because I realized I wouldn’t even have time to make a cooked pudding. Then I downgraded it again to lite lemon yogurt because…well…I already had it, and I didn’t have time to go to the store. My baking is all about the juxtaposition between my job needs and everything else. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day, and I have to choose my battles. But the way I figure it, not only were my tuiles light, but lite. I definitely think lemon pudding (or even curd) and some whipped cream would be great, but they were still tasty with the yogurt, and the blueberries added a nice contrast.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate this challenge as a 6, mostly because of my own doing. There is definite room for me to improve, although with so many other interesting things to bake, I’m not sure I am motivated to do so. Even if the tuiles had come out looking perfect, I am not entirely sure that they would be worth the effort, even though I am leaning towards trying again at some point. I have to admit, I would like to take some time to master their cousin, the fortune cookie. I actually attempted a fortune cookie fold with one of the tuiles, having watched the technique on tv, but mine basically just looked like someone had taken a round cookie and folded it into quarters.

Rose Bouquet Cake (Wilton Course 1, Class 4)

Our last class of the Wilton Course 1, I decided to do the rose bouquet cake -- 6 roses arranged in a bouquet tied with a buttercream ribbon.

I dyed my roses delphinium blue. It is hard to see in the pics, but it is a lovely color. I made it the day before I assembled the cake, and it got a little more purple-y overnight, it was originally a lovely slate blue.

I frosted the cake in white, with a white shell border. I tried to use my icing comb to create a design around the perimeter of the cake, and while it didn't work as well as I would have liked, it wasn't bad.

My roses are okay, I was having a real problem getting smooth petals. My instructor and I troubleshot the icing consistency and everything else under the sun (she also had problems with my tip, no matter what whose icing we used) and she came to the conclusion that there might be a slight imperfection on the interior of my tip that makes the icing crack as it comes out. So, I am going to replace my tip 104 and see if that helps.

But anyway, I assembled my roses on the cake (center one first, on a dollop of icing), and then added the leaves and stems. I wasn't thinking, but I should have made all the stems intersect at a common point midway down. I added the ribbon with tip 104 in blue. And then I added rosebuds around the sides of the cake for a little added color, and wrote "Happy Birthday" in green out of sheer laziness because the class was almost over and I didn't feel like thinning down the blue and assembling another bag to write with.

I definitely was more into the last cake than this one, because it had a fun theme, and this cake frustrated me with the roses. But it still turned out decently

Scarecrow Cake (Wilton Course 1, Class 3)

Today in class we made our "Scary Clown Cakes" (or in my case, "Scary Scarecrow Cake"). I wasn't able to use all of the elements I made, my cake was just too small, but the next fall-themed cake I make will be 9X13 minimum.

Icing my cake was tougher than in the second class (I ice my cakes at home, and do all the decorative elements in class) -- the cocoa powder I added to the buttercream made the icing very sticky, and it kept pulling up and just didn't want to ice smoothly. I had to keep wetting the knife to get the icing to stay put and smooth out, but eventually I got it to an acceptable point.

Bottom and top borders (#18 and #16, respectively) went on in class, and then I used #21 for the scarecrow bodies. This was a lot easier than I thought, and it took only a little practice on my board to get the bodies the way I wanted them. I opted for lying down and climbing the cake, purely because I wanted the scarecrows to survive the ride home. I did have to snip off about two thirds of the pick that came down from the scarecrow head, because it was far longer than the picks on the clowns, and was just making life difficult.

I used the #3 to put some vines on the bottom of my pumpkin patch, and then plopped the pumpkins on top. I used the #16 to put stems on (it was still on the bag with my chocolate border icing and I didn't feel like taking it apart), and I drew additional vines on the pumpkin tops. This could definitely look nicer, I'm not the best free-hander ever.

I used the #3 in green for crow eyes, since the bag was already assembled, and I placed those next. My haystack was more difficult because, once I put it on the cake, I really didn't have room to maneuver to get the grass tip all the way around. Next time, when my cake is larger and everything isn't squished together, that shouldn't be an issue. I did the best I could with the grass tip and my limited space, luckily haystacks don't have to be neat. Then I topped off the hands and feet of my scarecrows with hay.

I didn't have room for my apples, which is unfortunate because they would have added some nice bright red to the top of the cake. I originally wanted a tipped over apple basket, and a crow by it, but there just wasn't enough room. I toyed with the idea of just scattering them on the top, but honestly I didn't feel like washing and fitting the #3 tip with chocolate icing to make little stems on the apples.

I then adhered my leaves with icing to the sides of the cake (2 of my leaves broke in transit). I decided not to add the corn stalks to the sides as well, because they weren't turning out the greatest when I was practicing piping. I think it would have made the cake too busy anyway. Next time, with a bigger cake, I can add in that element, because I wanted more buttercream elements on the cake.

All in all I was pleased with how it turned out. A lot of things could have been done more neatly, but overall I think it had a nice festive fall effect, which is what I wanted.