Saturday, February 28, 2009

Daring Bakers Challenge - Flourless Chocolate Cake with Deeply Chocolate Gelato

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.

I have made flourless chocolate cake before, and was excited that making ice cream would be part of this challenge. I am still not a master of ice cream. I don't know exactly what consistency I'm looking for when I transfer the mixture from the ice cream maker to the freezer for the solid-freeze. I feel like the mouth feel just isn't right. It almost ends up like a gummy texture, rather than smooth. I would welcome any pointers or reassurances!

Deeply Chocolate Gelato
I decided to make this for Valentines Day, and I wanted to make a decadent ice cream. I had watched Ina Garten make this deeply chocolate gelato and knew I had to try it. And wow, this is the richest, darkest, chocolate ice cream or gelato that I have ever had. It made the flourless chocolate cake seem mild, and it was actually incredibly rich itself. Both my husband and I went through multiple glasses of milk just to eat one slice of cake with a scoop or two of ice cream.

Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino
For the cake itself, the main part of the challenge, I used 4 oz of milk chocolate, 4 oz of bittersweet, and 8 oz of semisweet. It was still pretty dark. Since you don't add sugar to the recipe, the sweetness depends entirely on the taste of the chocolate. I think next time I would use half milk chocolate and half semisweet, perhaps.

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.

I was in a weird mood when I made this recipe, and decided to beat the egg whites by hand. Sometimes it is just fun to work hard for the end result.

On an unrelated note, is anyone on Twitter? I joined this week but am only using it as a place to stick random quotations from books I'm reading, or sometimes movies and songs. Still, if you ever wanted a trip inside the head behind jennybakes.com, there you go.

Categories: Cake, Chocolate, Daring Bakers, Gelato, Ice Cream

49 comments:

Baker at Law said...

I saw that episode and thought the recipe for the gelato was fantastic. I am amazed that you did a chocolate on chocolate! It sounds like death by chocolate, but sinfuly delicious :-) Great job on the challenge!

Canadian Baker said...

Great job! I liked how you used different chocolates in your cake. :)

Heather said...

Looks YUMMY to me!!

Barbara Bakes said...

I've had the same struggles with homemade ice cream. I love the picture in the glass!

Sara said...

Yum, this looks really tasty!! :)

As for the gelato, from looking at the recipe it looks like it COULD be a lack of fat since it's mostly milk rather than cream. You might try it with a higher proportion of heavy cream and see if that helps the texture...I've found that recipes with higher fat tend to have better texture. You could alternately add some additional egg yolks to the custard.

Dharm said...

Wow! A double dose of chocolate!! Thanks for joining us in the challenge this month - you did a great job!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful job, Jenny! Your cake and ice cream really showcase the fudgy and 'chocolatey' goodness :) Love the photos too!

Meeta K. Wolff said...

that gelato is looking good! yume. great job on the challenge!

Sheree' said...

My DH loves chocolate and he would definatly be in Heaven with your devine dessert! Good job!! Thanks for visiting my blog! Fun to have new blog buddies. :o)

Anonymous said...

that gelato looks so rich and good and double chocolate, always a good thing!

Marija said...

Nothing goes better with chocolate than chocolate :) I just love your combo!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Very well done! That ice cream is definitely a winner! Great combo!

Cheers,

Rosa

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's some serious chocolate! :) Nice job!

Fit Chick said...

Wow, chocolate overload, LOL!!! I must try the gelato; your cake looks yummy!

Anonymous said...

That chocolate gelato looks so rich- This whole dessert sounds like a chocolate overload, in the best way possible of course!

Junie Moon said...

I love the addition of Ina Garten's chocolate gelato and will have to give that a try.

Your project came out wonderfully well.

marica said...

chocolate overload! yummy.

thanks for dropping by my site :)

The Irreverent Cook said...

Deep dark chocolate...words after this girl's heart! I don't have much experience with ice cream myself, only made it a couple of times, but could the gumminess have been caused by over-churning? Sometimes my ice cream tastes funny because the recipe is too rich as well =) Either ways, it looks gorgeous. Looooove that gelato!

chef_d said...

deeply chocolate gelato--ooohh that must taste heavenly!

Dragon said...

Chocolate overload! Great job on this month's challenge!

Anonymous said...

Chocolate on chocolate! Great combination. Pure decadence!

Anonymous said...

I know just from the name "Deepy chocolate gelato" that I'd absolutely adore this. Fantastic! :)

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I guess it can get better than chocolate cake. With more chocolate as chocolate gelato.:)
Love that.

Anonymous said...

Looks fabulous! Great idea to serve in sundae glasses.

NKP said...

Oh my! That gelato sounds amazing. I love Ina, she is the best!

Lori said...

Hmmmm, now thats my kind of ice cream!

Anonymous said...

That's some serious chocolate. They look great together. I think the "gumminess" may have to do with the protein in the milk. Some people aim for that texture by adding a bit of powdered milk to the mix before freezing. I love "chewy" cream.

Anonymous said...

Your cake and gelato look scrumptious!! I agree, you definitely need a nice big glass of milk to go with this cake.

Shirley said...

Your gelato looks sooo good! Thanks for your comment! I wouldn't say Philly is better; depends on what you're craving. It has no eggs so the flavors of what you're using really come through, like my vanilla -- or Philly style is good for peach ice cream because the flavor is so delicate the eggs might mask it. Then you have French vanilla, which is full of egg yolks and has a very distinct and delicious flavor. Philly style is also easier because you don't have to temper any eggs. If your ice cream textures are gummy, give Philly a try and let me know how it turns out!

Laurel said...

You have made chocolate lovers everywhere proud...excellent choices for a Valentine's valentino dessert! :-)

genkitummy said...

Mmm....that dark chocolate gelato looks amazing!

Andreas said...

Ah, chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. Two food groups in one picture. :)

Anonymous said...

That chocolate gelato looks GOOD.

Rebecca said...

Oh, Ina Garten has the best recipes. Your gelato--and cake, of course--look great!

Maggie said...

The gelato sounds so good! I wanted the recipe a little sweeter as well.

breadchick said...

OH WOW!! Chocolate everywhere!!!! I think that is about the most decadent one I've looked at tonight.

glamah16 said...

Thats a lot of chocolate, but I bet the gelato was superb.It looks rich and lovely.

ice tea: sugar high said...

wow.. a true chocoholic heaven. Delish!

Zoe said...

Wow! That gelato is definitely going on my list of things to try!

Anonymous said...

That gelato looks fantastic! I'm going to have to make it sometime.

Jo said...

Looks great and good job on your challenge.

Sarah said...

wow, this looks so decadent! This is the first one I've seen (of this month's DB challenge) that paired chocolate ice cream with the Valentino. I would totally order this in a restaurant. I just might have to make the cake again so I can try it with this gelato recipe.

Vera said...

Delicious looking cake!

Unknown said...

That gelato looks awesome. yum!

Eat4Fun said...

You cake looks delicious, but the ice cream looks decadent that sounds like a keeper. Great job!

tina said...

Your cake looks so sinfully creamy!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Oh my! That's chocolate coma here! Yummy!

Celeste said...

YUM...double chocolate...now that's my kind of dessert!!! Great job!

Tina said...

yummyyyy!!