Blog.EmealsForYou

Back in the Kitchen Again – Doing the Happy Dance

January 19, 2010 at 7:41 am Leave a comment

(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Dana's Flourless Chocolate Cake

I’m doing the happy dance, I am back in the kitchen again.  Some of you will think I am nuts, some only semi-nuts and a few will understand.  For those of us who cook, eating in fast food restaurants, getting take-out, or even going to the chain restaurants is a punishment, not a plus.  The food is never as good as it should be, the atmosphere not great and not up to the high standard we set at home.  So you can see that now that my move is complete and my kitchen almost back to where I know what is “behind door number 3″,  I am extremely happy to be “home” again.  I am still trying to get everything situated in the kitchen, what goes in what drawer and where the particular plates are but man it is good to be making the food the way I want it and besides, no tipping required.

My wonderful brother-in-law came to town to help with the move and we are working on his kitchen skills.  Over the years he has paid attention, more attention than I thought, in the kitchen as we caught up on our lives.  We cooked a few meals together and I was pleasantly surprised that he had absorbed many of the basics.  Anyway, during the NJ Christmas trip he put in his “wish list” for desserts, we did 4 out of the 5 he requested.  The odd man out was a flourless chocolate cake so I thought it was fitting that we, actually he, would make this while he was here.  He did a great job on the cake.  We did think it took longer to bake than it should have so a good lesson here is to check the oven temperature on a new or different oven when baking for the first time.  Apparently my oven beeps when it is preheated; only problem was that it beeped about 20 minutes and 100 degrees before it reached the proper temperature.  This threw the total baking time off somewhat.  Anyway, the cake was great and I froze the leftovers, so last night I had a piece.  The cake was good, the memories better, so here’s to your, Campy, for all your help and for the cake.

Dana’s Flourless Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350. butter a 9” springform pan; line the bottom with buttered wax paper, dust with cocoa powder. Melt chocolate and butter together, allow to cool slightly. Separate eggs; beat yolks on medium for 1 minute, add sugar and beat until light yellow. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until just peaking. Blend cooled chocolate with egg yolks, add cocoa; fold in egg whites. Pour into pan, bake for 40-45 minutes. This is a very moist cake and an inserted knife should come out barely wet. Allow to cool for ½ hour prior too removing from pan. Pour chocolate ganache over top, leave on counter until ready to serve.

If you refrigerate this cake the ganache will lose its shine.

·Note: This is almost a souffle; it will rise and drop, if the center caves in don’t panic. Fill with berries and pretend it was on purpose. It happens to all of us.

Entry filed under: Rants, Semi-Rants and Non-Rants. Tags: chocolate cake, chocolate dessert, chocolate gananche, chocolatte, flourless cake, flourless chocolate cake, gananche, great dessert, Meal Planning, oven temperature.