The Daring Baker's February: Flourless Chocolate Valentino cake

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 Chew Wan, a Vanilla Ice-cream recipe by Dharm and a Vanilla Ice-creamr ecipe from Wendy as the challenge.

February's DB challenge was a deep dark Chocolate Valentino. This flourless chocolate cake is simply heavenly. So smooth and chocolatey. I paired the cake with a nougt ice-cream, which I still had sitting in the freezer. I was looking forward to trying the vanilla ice-cream recipes, but was unable to since my ice-cream machine is waiting in another country (Kyrgyzstan.) But it's coming back with me to Finland in the summer. Then i'll be churning ice-cream every week!

All I can say is that this recipe gives an amazingly chocolatey cake and that i'll be making this cake again soon.
Chocolate Valentino:

preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

16 oz (1 pound) (454 grams) semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

1/2 cup ( 1 stick + 2 tbsp) (146 grams total) unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Place the chocolate and the butter in a heat proof 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 and then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and place into two larage/medium bowls.

4. whip the egg whites in a grease proof medium/large bowl until stiff peaks are formed ( do not over whip of the cake will turn out dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

6. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and followed by the remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflaiting the batter.

7. Pour the batter into prepaired pan. the batter should fill the pan 3/4 way full and bake at 375F/190 C.

8. Bake for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometers shows 140 F/60 C.

Notes- if you don not have an instant read themometer the top of the cake should look similar to that of a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

9. cool cake on a wire rake for 10 minutes then unmold.

Dharm's Vanilla Ice-cream ( Recipe comes from the Ice-cream book by Joanna farrow and Sara Lewis)

preparation time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)

300 ml ( 1/2 pint, 1 1/4 cups semi skimmed milk- in the U.S. this is 2% fat ( or use fresh full fat milk tha is pasteurised and homogenised ( as opposed to canned or powdered). Dharm use whole milk.

4 large egg yolks

75 grams, 6 oz, 6 tbsp caster sugar

5 ml, 1 tsp corn flour (cornstarch)

300 ml, 1 pint, 1 1/4 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 infuseLift 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 RecipeVanilla; Philadelphia Style Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)

1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream

2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar

Dash of salt

1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla

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 longerMix in your ice cream maker as directed.