Well it's that time of the month again- Daring Bakers. I am eternally grateful that this month's challenge was not overly daring. This recipe was chosen, I believe, with Valentines Day in mind, as traditionally the cake is made in a heart shaped tin. While I do have a (very underused) heart shaped tin, I did not end up making this cake for Valentines Day.
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.
Of course we couldn't get out of it that easy! Along with the Chocolate Valentino cake (a flourless chocolate cake) we also needed to make home made ice cream. I'm really glad they included this component as I always seem to forget how much I love making ice cream (and how easy it is). We have recently discovered an ice cream place called Movenpick. It's a Swiss ice cream company and it has the best ice cream! I've fallen head over heels for their Stracciatella ice cream, so I thought I should attempt my own at home. I have this bad habit of not completely reading a recipe before I start- this I can assure you, maddens S like nothing else. I am forever making mistakes or forgetting ingredients or steps due to skimming through the recipe. Well, this occasion was no exception... I had been wondering how I would achieve those flaky waves of chocolate that run through Straciatella, and had decided in my own mind to simply hand shave each piece of chocolate with a potato peeler. While I wasn't particularly happy with enduring such a long process, I really wanted the get the texture right. Wrong! If I had bothered to read the whole recipe properly, I would have seen that the chocolate needs to be melted and simply poured into the churning ice cream mixture! Once the warm chocolate hits the freezing ice cream, it hardens instantly, creating those ribbons of chocolate. How simple. How stupid of me. I'm happy with the end result of the ice cream and I'll definitely make it again.
Now, the Chocolate Valentino. Boy was this rich. The recipe clearly stated that you should choose your chocolate wisely, as whatever you chose, this would be exactly what the cake tasted like. I am a big fan of Valrhona Caraibe, so I went with that. Wrong! It really was too bitter of a chocolate for this recipe. I'm glad that we made ice cream to go with it, because it was just so richly bitter.
Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
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
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. {link of folding demonstration}
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.
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
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. {link of folding demonstration}
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.
4 comments:
Wow, your icecream sounds and looks impressive - I love it.
Your cake looks wonderful. How funny about your ice cream. I probably would have done the same thing.
Mistake or not... your little bundle of sweet is totaly cute! ...and I'm sure, was just as tasty!
Bravo!
P.s.: I too made the such mistakes, wanting to make nice ribbons of chocolate in vanilla ice cream. Except I pourred in the melted chocolate way too early in the churning process... and it ended all at the bottom of the ice cream. Uh.
Now we know... practice makes perfect! LOL
Your cake looks fantastic! And I bet that hand-peeled ice cream would've tasted extra good :D
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