Flourless Chocolate Cake
My dad's birthday was this month, so we invited my family over to dinner, and I asked him what he'd like me to make for dessert. The request was for something "chocolate, so rich it's disgusting."
I have a spring-form pan I never get to use, so I'm like "hey, flourless chocolate cake!"
Disclaimer: I'm no kind of baker. I don't measure things exactly, I have a hard time following directions, and often I'm just winging things. More often than not what I end up with is edible, sometimes it's a total win, and every now and again I get a fail. I don't know what this is yet, because we haven't cut into it yet. Pics and final verdict will have to come later. I'm tossing this up here in case it does turn out good and someone asks how I made it, or if I want to make it again or tweak something for attempt #2, like maybe only use half a pound of chocolate. Otherwise, I will forget and the knowledge will disappear into the void (which happened recently with some coconut-rum-pineapple-lime cakes I made for my building manager's tiki-themed homecoming party).
Edit: Added a couple of pics. RESULTS ARE IN! It worked!
Things You Will Need:
- Roughly 16 oz of dark chocolate, 70% or higher (I used 72% Belgian chocolate... yes, a whole pound of it, whatever, you only live once)
- 9 large eggs, separated
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- Approximately 3/4 cup a sugar
- About 1/4 cup Kahlua and Bailey's (poured together in the world's richest cocktail... not "each")
- Pinch of salt
- A large bowl
- At least two other bowls (to separate the eggs into), putting the whites in a bigish one
- A 9". spring-form pan
- Something to melt chocolate in (small pan, microwavable bowl, whatever)
- A whisk
- A big wooden spoon or spatula or something similar
- An egg beater or substitute thereof
This makes a pretty sizable cake, and if it works it will be rich as hell, so make sure to invite company to help eat it. You cannot eat it alone. That would be foolish.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep your spring-form. You could spray some Pam in that thing, or grease&flour it old-fashioned style. Or grease&cocoa powder it if you want to avoid flour. Some people even put a circle of wax paper on the bottom. Whatever floats your boat. I did not have wax paper, so I went the Pam route. When I can, I like to side on the Lazy.
2. Melt chocolate and butter together in the best way that works for you. For me, that means sticking a small pan on top of a slightly bigger pan with water in it, in a ghetto double broiler, on lowish heat until it's all consistent and sexy-looking. Now leave that alone to cool. You can pour it into a large, clean bowl now if you like.
3. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until you get kind of a consistent pale yellow stuff. Mix in the alcohol and the salt with the yolks. If you didn't put the chocolate in the biggest, cleanest bowl you had during the last step, do it now. Then you slowly mix the yolk mixture to the chocolate. You might be tempted to eat this shit as is. Don't. There's raw egg yolk in there and I'm told that is unhealthy. If the chocolate is too hot when you do this, it might cook your eggs, which would be an interesting lesson in chemistry but not very helpful to the cake. Try to avoid that.
4. Beat the egg whites in their own bowl with nothing else adulterating them until peaks form. Don't ask me if it's soft peaks or stiff peaks because I don't really know the difference. Usually I go until there are visible peaks and I am tired of beating the egg whites. Say "This looks about right, right?" to yourself, decide that sure, sure it does, and leave it at that. Sometimes I beat them until I run out of room in the bowl I chose to beat them in, and call that good enough. Whatever. The point here is that the egg whites get beaten significantly to add volume to them.
5. GENTLY and SLOWLY fold those beaten egg whites into the chocolate bowl. Now you know why you needed your biggest bowl for this, because suddenly you have a LOT of stuff in it. You might be tempted at some point to eat this as is. Don't. It is delicious, there is no doubt about that, but there are raw egg whites and raw egg yolks in there and I'm told that is unhealthy. This did not stop me from batter-sampling to my heart's content, of course, but you might be smarter than I am. Who knows?
6. Pour that batter out into the 9" spring-form pan. Note how sexy it looks. Pat yourself on the back for making a batter that tasted off-the-hook, at least, even if the cake fails. Maybe do a little dance, but not too much of one. You still have to put that bitch in the oven.
7. Put that bitch in the oven. Some people like to do a water bath with these cakes. I don't actually own a roasting pan or other pan big enough to do that with, so I didn't. I baked it on the bottom rack for about 25 minutes. The center will be slightly wobbly when you pull it out (this isn't a cake you can crumb-test with), but the sides will have pulled away from the pan, and it will basically look like a cake.
8. Let it cool completely in its pan on a wire rack. Once it's cooled completely, you can put some plastic wrap over the top and stick it in the fridge to let it calm down and decide whether or not it wants to be delicious. Talking to it or attempting to guilt-trip it won't sway it one way or another, so go do something else. Watch a movie. Go to bed. Write a livejournal entry about baking it. This thing will keep up to 3 days in the fridge, so don't sweat it.
This cake owes you nothing.
Serving Suggestions:
If it works out, then this will be a dense, rich cake that will want to be served in small slices with a super light, fluffy whipped cream:
This is a very close up picture of a serving in a tupperware container, with lots of whipped cream on the side.
If you want clean cuts, you can run the knife under hot water for a second before each slice (and wipe it clean after). Frosting would be total overkill, as the interior will be moist (thank you, alcohol). The whipped cream (barely sweetened if you sweeten it at all) is helpful to balance the density of the chocolate. If it fails and is simply too dense all the way through, just get some vanilla ice cream, invite more friends over, and crumble the cake up into a boatload of topping for an "ice cream party." Pretend that was what you meant to do all along. Either way, this will likely be a rich, decadent mess. But that's dessert, man. You have to go all in with this sort of thing.
I have a spring-form pan I never get to use, so I'm like "hey, flourless chocolate cake!"
Disclaimer: I'm no kind of baker. I don't measure things exactly, I have a hard time following directions, and often I'm just winging things. More often than not what I end up with is edible, sometimes it's a total win, and every now and again I get a fail. I don't know what this is yet, because we haven't cut into it yet. Pics and final verdict will have to come later. I'm tossing this up here in case it does turn out good and someone asks how I made it, or if I want to make it again or tweak something for attempt #2, like maybe only use half a pound of chocolate. Otherwise, I will forget and the knowledge will disappear into the void (which happened recently with some coconut-rum-pineapple-lime cakes I made for my building manager's tiki-themed homecoming party).
Edit: Added a couple of pics. RESULTS ARE IN! It worked!
Things You Will Need:
- Roughly 16 oz of dark chocolate, 70% or higher (I used 72% Belgian chocolate... yes, a whole pound of it, whatever, you only live once)
- 9 large eggs, separated
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- Approximately 3/4 cup a sugar
- About 1/4 cup Kahlua and Bailey's (poured together in the world's richest cocktail... not "each")
- Pinch of salt
- A large bowl
- At least two other bowls (to separate the eggs into), putting the whites in a bigish one
- A 9". spring-form pan
- Something to melt chocolate in (small pan, microwavable bowl, whatever)
- A whisk
- A big wooden spoon or spatula or something similar
- An egg beater or substitute thereof
This makes a pretty sizable cake, and if it works it will be rich as hell, so make sure to invite company to help eat it. You cannot eat it alone. That would be foolish.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep your spring-form. You could spray some Pam in that thing, or grease&flour it old-fashioned style. Or grease&cocoa powder it if you want to avoid flour. Some people even put a circle of wax paper on the bottom. Whatever floats your boat. I did not have wax paper, so I went the Pam route. When I can, I like to side on the Lazy.
2. Melt chocolate and butter together in the best way that works for you. For me, that means sticking a small pan on top of a slightly bigger pan with water in it, in a ghetto double broiler, on lowish heat until it's all consistent and sexy-looking. Now leave that alone to cool. You can pour it into a large, clean bowl now if you like.
3. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until you get kind of a consistent pale yellow stuff. Mix in the alcohol and the salt with the yolks. If you didn't put the chocolate in the biggest, cleanest bowl you had during the last step, do it now. Then you slowly mix the yolk mixture to the chocolate. You might be tempted to eat this shit as is. Don't. There's raw egg yolk in there and I'm told that is unhealthy. If the chocolate is too hot when you do this, it might cook your eggs, which would be an interesting lesson in chemistry but not very helpful to the cake. Try to avoid that.
4. Beat the egg whites in their own bowl with nothing else adulterating them until peaks form. Don't ask me if it's soft peaks or stiff peaks because I don't really know the difference. Usually I go until there are visible peaks and I am tired of beating the egg whites. Say "This looks about right, right?" to yourself, decide that sure, sure it does, and leave it at that. Sometimes I beat them until I run out of room in the bowl I chose to beat them in, and call that good enough. Whatever. The point here is that the egg whites get beaten significantly to add volume to them.
5. GENTLY and SLOWLY fold those beaten egg whites into the chocolate bowl. Now you know why you needed your biggest bowl for this, because suddenly you have a LOT of stuff in it. You might be tempted at some point to eat this as is. Don't. It is delicious, there is no doubt about that, but there are raw egg whites and raw egg yolks in there and I'm told that is unhealthy. This did not stop me from batter-sampling to my heart's content, of course, but you might be smarter than I am. Who knows?
6. Pour that batter out into the 9" spring-form pan. Note how sexy it looks. Pat yourself on the back for making a batter that tasted off-the-hook, at least, even if the cake fails. Maybe do a little dance, but not too much of one. You still have to put that bitch in the oven.
7. Put that bitch in the oven. Some people like to do a water bath with these cakes. I don't actually own a roasting pan or other pan big enough to do that with, so I didn't. I baked it on the bottom rack for about 25 minutes. The center will be slightly wobbly when you pull it out (this isn't a cake you can crumb-test with), but the sides will have pulled away from the pan, and it will basically look like a cake.
8. Let it cool completely in its pan on a wire rack. Once it's cooled completely, you can put some plastic wrap over the top and stick it in the fridge to let it calm down and decide whether or not it wants to be delicious. Talking to it or attempting to guilt-trip it won't sway it one way or another, so go do something else. Watch a movie. Go to bed. Write a livejournal entry about baking it. This thing will keep up to 3 days in the fridge, so don't sweat it.
This cake owes you nothing.
Serving Suggestions:
If it works out, then this will be a dense, rich cake that will want to be served in small slices with a super light, fluffy whipped cream:
This is a very close up picture of a serving in a tupperware container, with lots of whipped cream on the side.
If you want clean cuts, you can run the knife under hot water for a second before each slice (and wipe it clean after). Frosting would be total overkill, as the interior will be moist (thank you, alcohol). The whipped cream (barely sweetened if you sweeten it at all) is helpful to balance the density of the chocolate. If it fails and is simply too dense all the way through, just get some vanilla ice cream, invite more friends over, and crumble the cake up into a boatload of topping for an "ice cream party." Pretend that was what you meant to do all along. Either way, this will likely be a rich, decadent mess. But that's dessert, man. You have to go all in with this sort of thing.