recipe: flourless chocolate cake

It didn't really occur to me to actually post the recipe for this, but a few people asked for it so here it is :D

250g dark cooking chocolate (I recommend Lindt dark chocolate)
100g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tbs coffee-flavoured liqueur (optional - I used vanilla syrup)
125g hazelnut meal
5 eggs, separated

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 23cm round springform tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Place the cooking chocolate, sugar, butter and liqueur in a heatproof bowl. Melt over a double boiler. Stir occasionally to ensure even melting and mixing. When fully melted remove from heat and mix thoroughly.

3. Transfer chocolate mixture to a large bowl. Stir in hazelnut meal, then beat the egg yolks in one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a dry bowl, whisk egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold in the rest using a rubber spatula (or large metal spoon).

4. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted. Leave to cool completely in the tin before turning out and dusting with icing sugar.

Courtesy of "THE ESSENTIAL BAKING COOKBOOK"

baked polenta

I haven't experimented much with polenta actually, and the first time I tried making it myself it sort of turned out like mush.

Corn seems to have a great relationship with cheese and I approve wholeheartedly, which is probably why I am such a fan of this dish. Polenta, stock, mozzarella (lots), parmesan (also lots), tomato and prosciutto - a winning combination. Such a simple dish. Cook the polenta in the stock. Add cheese and stir. Add tomatoes and prosciutto and stir. Bake. Add more cheese on top. Bake. Eat! Love it.

Probably the trickiest thing about this dish for me was finding a prosciutto with no preservatives or anything that I couldn't eat. I finally found one that was just pork and salt, it wasn't cheap, but it was worth it.

Today confirmed my theory that you can pretty much throw whatever you like into polenta and bake it. This is really exciting for me because it opens up a lot other "take away" (and by that I mean make at home and take to work) options for lunch for me because lately I have been really scraping the bottom of the barrel for easy to heat up at work options. I'm just not sure I'll move away from the cheese combination ;)

back to baking

I am the first to admit that I am quite terrible at keeping this thing up to date. However today comes with such greatness!!! I was finally motivated to make interesting tasty food again, which I just haven't felt like doing for a long long time. And I have reaped the benefits.

This flourless chocolate cake is just the right texture, moist, a little burnt on one side, but I blame my oven for that mostly and yet just so delicious!! It's very rich and quite crumbly, great with ice cream. The last time I tried this cake it collapsed in the middle, but this time, I am not sure what I did different, but it was perfect all the way around.

I did learn that chocolate really does expire though. It surprised me. I found some nice caramel chocolate that had an expiry of about a year ago, and I thought I'd give it a go anyway. No good. It didn't melt very well, and it sort of had a coagulated consistency by the end of it. So I tossed it out and started again.

If you are trying to do any baking with chocolate, I definitely advice using good quality (non expired) chocolate. For this cake I have used bittersweet dark lindt chocolate. Very smooth, but no barely or malt, just good chocolate things. I do tend to use it in quite a lot of my chocolate cooking.

Hazelnut meal is the base for this cake, and not that much is needed. It seems to be less oily than almond meal. The flavour is different, but I can't pinpoint what the difference is yet. It works quite well with this cake because it binds with the chocolate rather than just co-existing.

All in all I am a happy camper, cake is good for me, especially when I know exactly what's in it. Let me know if you want the receipe!