Daring Bakers: Chocolate Valentino

Ah..February. The month of Valentines Day. A day for lovers to be in love and spend ridiculous amounts of money to show that they love someone. Its also a day for those that are single to be made perfectly aware that they are in fact single. When I was in college, a few of my single friends and I decided to go out together, eat Mexican food, watch a marathon of chick flicks, and celebrate the hidden side of Valentines Day...Singles Awareness Day. Or SAD as my friend Christine referred to it. Kind of fitting uh? Of course, I am a happily dedicated single gal so maybe for at least one, then its not so sad.

For our Daring Bakers challenge this month, we were given a chocolate flour less cake. Perfect for my Singles Awareness Day celebration!

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.

You've heard me say many times that I am not a huge fan of chocolate. I eat it but don't go out of my way to pick or eat chocolate recipes. But lately I seem to be inundated with a ton to make. Well, eating chocolate isn't a bad thing really so I guess I just have to roll with it, don't I?

I was intrigued by the recipe chosen this month because it is a flour less chocolate cake. I've never made such a cake before and was a bit nervous. It seemed easy enough though with just three ingredients, it didn't look like it was that hard to make.

It was sooooo easy to do. I had the chocolate and butter melted, mixed, and ready in no time. Even the egg whites were a piece of cake (hehe). I used my immersion blender to whip them up in less than a minute. I don't think I've ever had them set up that fast using my mixer!

Instead of making one big cake (even though I had the heart shaped pan) I made a quarter of a recipe and used 3 4-inch round cake pans. It was such a delicious cake! Nice and chewy! I think the reason I really enjoyed this cake so much was the fact that I used milk chocolate. Our hosts said the cake would taste like the chocolate we used so that was a major consideration. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate and I'm okay with semi-sweet. But for me to really enjoy my chocolate, it has to be milk chocolate. I like my chocolate sweet not bitter like dark.

This cake tasted how I imagine my perfect brownie would taste. The texture was also how I like my brownies. Perfectly chewy and slightly fudgy. I'll definitely be making this again. Probably thinking of it as a brownie though!

The second part of our challenge was to make ice cream. I'm no stranger to making ice cream. I grew up making it with an electric ice cream maker that you had to sit outside in a bucket to catch the melted water. It was also very loud! Nowadays, I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker that I love. It make the perfect amount for one person to eat within a reasonable amount of time.

We were given two options for the ice cream. A traditional custard base made with eggs or a Philidelphia Style. While I love the traditional style of ice cream, I wasn't in the mood for something complicated so I went with the Philidelphia style. I used low fat half and half and non fat milk because that was all I had in the fridge at the time. I also added some Matcha to the mix to give it a little boost in flavor. It was a delicious ice cream. A little icy, no doubt from my low and non fat items but I really enjoyed it. The matcha flavor paired really well with the chocolate cake. It almost gave it a minty, flowery taste. Very, very nice! Next time I would add a bit more to give the ice cream a greener color and to umph the flavor some more.

Thanks to our hosts for such a delicious challenge! You can see more Chocolate Valentino and ice cream combinations, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll!

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (I used milk chocolate)
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.

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.

Dharm's Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients

1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.

2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time.

4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.

5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse).

By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

Wendy's Ice Cream Recipe (I used this recipe...sort of.)
Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk) (I used low fat half and half)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream (I used non fat milk)
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla
I also added 1 tsp of Matcha

Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too).

Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.

Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.