Flourless Chocolate Cake #2

1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/4 cup coffee liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

7 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Stir chocolate, butter, coffee liqueur, and vanilla in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until thick and pale, and slowly dissolving ribbon forms when beaters are lifted, about 6 minutes. Fold 1/3 of egg mixture into lukewarm chocolate mixture. Fold remaining egg mixture into chocolate mixture.

Place prepared pan on baking sheet. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 55 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Gently press down edges of cake. Cool completely in pan. (Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before continuing.)

Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Remove sides of pan; transfer cake to platter. Remove parchment paper. Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar and serve.

]]> http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/12/flourless-cake-number-2/feed/ 0 http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/12/flourless-chocolate-cake/ http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/12/flourless-chocolate-cake/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:19:00 +0000 Judy http://chocolatebakeryblog.com/?p=72 I have recently been going through some of my recipes, and came across several my favorite flourless chocolate cake recipes. As a professional baker and business owner, I am constantly trying to work out the perfect recipes, tweaking this ,adding that. The benefit of all this testing is that 1. my family gets to taste test my experiments and 2. I ultimately get what I consider to be a pretty close -to- perfect recipe. If you are a chocolate lover, like I am, you will LOVE these recipes. I’ll be posting one each day for the next few days.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

6 large eggs

preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan. Line bottom with waxed paper. Stir butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted. Mix sugar and cocoa in large bowl. Add eggs; whisk until well blended. Whisk in chocolate-butter mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Release pan sides. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

If you are like me, this picture has your mouth watering. Read on for a great recipe.

This is one of the best recipes that I have come across in quite a while. Being an avid chocolate lover, but having honed my chocolate taste buds, I often have a difficult time finding chocolate recipes that are just right, but this one certainly fits the bill. If you, or anyone you know is crazy for chocolate, this is a cake you MUST  try out on them.

Yield: 3 to 4 individual cakes
.
Generously butter and sugar 4-ounce to 6-ounce oven-proof glass cups,
porcelain ramekins, or ceramic custard cups

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 oz. butter

2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons flour

Procedure:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a bain marie.
Stir until well blended, then let cool to warm room temperature.
2. Meanwhile, in another bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed,
beat the yolks, whole eggs and sugar until the eggs are greatly increased in volume,
pale yellow, and hold a ribbon for a few seconds when allowed to drip off the
beaters onto the top of the mixture.
3. On low speed, pour the chocolate into the eggs and mix briefly.
Remove from the mixer, and hand fold, scraping the bottom
of the bowl to make sure you bring the chocolate up.
4. When the mixture is almost blended — still streaky –
sprinkle the flour on top and continue mixing until well-blended.
5. Portion the batter into each prepared mold.
6. Place filled molds on a baking sheet and bake immediately or
refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until ready to bake.
7. Bake 425º , deck oven 7 to 9 minutes , or up to 12 minutes
if chilled thoroughly (more than several hours).
Bake 400º convection oven, 6 – 8 minutes.
When done, the batter will be puffed up and, when you move the baking sheet,
it won’t jiggle in the center.Overbaking will result in a firm, cakelike center.
Optional: place a ½ oz. truffle or ball of cold ganache in the center before baking. .8. Remove from the oven and immediately unmold the cakes:
Hold the mold in one hand, protecting yourself with an oven mitt or pot holder,
and work a small sharp knife around the perimeter (between the cake and mold).
Place a serving plate on top of the mold and reverse to unmold the cake onto the plate.
Use the point of your knife to begin to lift the mold off the plate, then remove it.
A nickel-sized spot on top of the cake may still be molten: that’s fine.

Note: There’s no need to bake off all the cakes at once.
They may be kept, covered with plastic, in the refrigerator for several days.
Leftover baked cakes can be kept at room temperature, covered with plastic,
in which case the runny centers gain a mousse-like consistency.

Paint the plate with Chocolate Bergamot sauce, garnish with whipped ganache or whipped cream. Serve plain, or dress it up with Port Cherry Compote or Mascerated dried sour cherries.

Delicious Giant Cupcake

I have long been a cup cake fan. Who hasn’t? As I’m sure you have noticed, cupcakes have become exceedingly popular over the past few years and cupcake stores have been springing up all over the country. As an professional baker and owner of an amazing set of taste buds ( if I do say so myself) I have made it my duty to try as many of these different cupcake brands as possible. I have gone as far as to fly down to LA to taste the famous Sprinkles cup cake and had my daughter bring home Magnolia cupcakes from New York, and I can say with the utmost authority that nothing can compare to the giant cupcake that we make at www.ChocolateBakery.com This old time favorite hostess-style cupcake has been vastly improved. Replace cheap, chemical tasting cake with moist rich cake and exchange the brilliant white fake frosting with made from scratch filling, and PRESTO, the best cupcake you’ve ever had.

My favorite meal of the entire year is Thanksgiving. It is not only the ultimate comfort food, but the ultimate “comfort day”, with flavors and aromas that allow me to time-travel to my grandmother’s house decades past. The aroma of roasted turkey and freshly baked bread rival my favorite baking aroma: brownies in the oven.

Now that the preparation of Thanksgiving dinner has been handed down from grandmother to mother to me, I’ve been “tweaking” the menu and recipes, trying to create the perfect blend of tradition and creativity. My most recent “tweaks” are brined turkey and pumpkin cheesecake.

I know that for zillions of people, pumpkin pie is a mandatory part of the Thanksgiving dessert table. I like pumpkin pie, but I don’t love pumpkin pie. I do love cheesecake, though, and I really like the melding of these two desserts. Cheesecake is easier to make than most people think; in fact, easier than pie. If you have struggled with trying to make a decent pie crust, then maybe a pumpkin cheesecake with a graham cracker crust is the answer for you.

Most of the questions I receive regarding cheesecakes (I teach baking classes at American River College) have to do with the problem of unsightly cracks in the baked cheesecake. I will share with you my pumpkin cheesecake recipe, along with many tips to help prevent lumpy batter and avoid cracking during or after baking. A “how to” video and the recipe can be seen below.

Happy Baking,

Judy Parks

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe:
1 – 9″ Cheesecake with Graham or Gingersnap Crust

Crust:

• 1 C Graham Cracker Crumbs Or Gingersnap Crumbs
• ¼ C Sugar
• ¼ C Butter, Melted

Combine all ingredients. Press into bottom of 9″ or 10″ springform pan or 10″ x 3″ deep pan. If you are using a cake pan, first line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper or waxed paper. Bake crust 3500 for 10 minutes.

Filling:

• 2 Lb. Cream Cheese, Softened
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 Tbl. Flour
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
• ¼ tsp. Nutmeg
• 5 Eggs
• 15 Oz. Can Pumpkin Puree
• 1/3 Cup Heavy Cream (Optional)
• 1 ½ tsp. Vanilla

Steps:

1. Blend cream cheese, sugars and spices on low speed till softened. Stop and scrape the bowl and beater several times. Do not whip a lot of air into the batter as this can contribute to cracking.
2. Blend in flour.
3. Blend in eggs, 1 at a time, scraping bowl before adding the next egg.
4. Blend in cream if you want a softer cheesecake. Omit the cream if you want a slightly drier, firmer cheesecake.
5. Blend in pumpkin in 3 additions, scraping after each addition. Blend in vanilla.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake in a water bath, 350º F, approximately 1 hour, or until the cheesecake yields a firm jiggle when gently touched. If you want to be certain that the cheesecake is done, check the temperature in the center of the cake with an instant read thermometer. A range of 150º F. to 160º F indicates doneness. Remove from water bath, let cool 5 to 10 minutes, then gently run a knife around the edge of the cake. This will help the cake contract without cracking. Cool to room temperature away from drafts. Refrigerate overnight before unpanning. To unpan a cheesecake from a springform pan, first cut around the edge, then warm the bottom on the stove top, just until the bottom feels warm, then release the clasp. Using a long metal spatula, slide the cake onto the serving plate.
8. To unmold the cheesecake that was baked in a cake pan: cut around the sides, warm the bottom of the pan on the stove top just until the bottom feels warm, then invert onto a plate, remove the cake pan and immediately invert onto the serving plate.
9. Garnish with whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Tips:

• A lot of emphasis is placed on scraping the bowl and beater. This helps eliminate lumps. Lumps are pieces of cream cheese that are not thoroughly blended with the other ingredients. Cold cream cheese is more likely to produce a lumpy batter than room temp. cream cheese.
• You can adjust the spices to suit you taste. Maple extract is a nice addition.
• Cracking is caused by several things: oven temperature too hot, whipping too much air into the batter, cooling the baked cake too rapidly, bumping the cake while it is still warm, natural contraction of the cake during cooling.
• Baking at 350º F, in a water bath helps avoid cracking. If using a spingform pan, wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil to prevent water leaking into the pan. (I’ve never found a springform pan that is water-tight.) Mixing on low speed will reduce the amount of air incorporated into the batter. To cool the cake slowly, you can turn off your oven, open the door, and allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven.

]]> http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/11/pumpkin-cheesecake/feed/ 1 http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/10/devils-food-cake/ http://www.chocolatebakeryblog.com/2008/10/devils-food-cake/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:50:19 +0000 Judy http://chocolatebakeryblog.com/?p=40 The Devil’s Food. A long time family favorite. Easy to make and even easier on the taste buds. For years, I thought that the name Devil’s food related to the tempting chocolate and the sinful ,rich flavors of the cake. I, however, was mistaken. This little tid bit of knowledge was something that I though I’d pass on to my fellow bakers and aspiring pastry chefs.
As it turns out, Devils food , in fact, is not related to the devil! I would have sworn that those extra calories that seem to stick in unwanted places had to be the work of the horned red man, but turns out, I was mistaken.
According to the ” What’s Cooking America”  website, the name devils food has the following origin:
Definition of deviled – A term describing food that is dark, rich, chocolate, spicily piquant or stimulating it is “deviled.” The term “deviled” for spicy foods dates back to the 18th century. Deviled dishes were popular throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, especially for seafood dishes. According to the Oxford Companion to Food: Devil–a culinary term which . . . first appeared as a noun in the 18th century, and then in the early 19th century as a verb meaning to cook something with fiery hot spices or condiments. . . . The term was presumably adopted because of the connection between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell. . . . Boswell, Dr Johnson’s biographer, frequently refers to partaking of a dish of “devilled bones” for supper, which suggests an earlier use. . . Deviled dishes were very popular throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, especially for seafood preparations and some appetizers.

Who knew? Pass this little gem along and impress your friends.