Nov 17 Thai take out
Nov 18 Nobody home but me so I ate popcorn. Put some smoked paprika on it to make it new
Nov 19 Dinner out with friends (I am actually starting to get tired of eating out if you can believe that)
Nov 20 American thanksgiving dinner at Jen's house and I made flour less chocolate cake
So, once again I didn't cook dinner at all in the last four days unless you count my popcorn with olive oil and smoked paprika as cooking dinner. I am alarmed at how much we eat out and if this year has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that we eat out way too damned much!
Anyway, too late to do anything about this now so I will share my recipe for flourless chocolate cake since that is what I made as my contribution to Sunday night's dinner. This cake is so easy but so delicious that it has become my fall back, go to dessert. It's easy to make sure you always have good chocolate, eggs and sugar in the pantry so it really is something you can whip up at the last minute. You can make any sort of additions too - some chopped up candied ginger or some orange zest and extract and you have something a bit new. For ease of remembering, I like the 200/200/200 gram ratio too -it's kind like Herman Cain's 9/9/9 but it actually makes sense.
It would actually make a fine main course any night of the week if you round it out with a nice salad, of course.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
adapted from Laura Calder and featured on The Yum Yum Factor last year
200 grams good dark chocolate (i like to use about 70% dark), broken into chunks
200 grams butter, cut into chunks
1 tsp vanilla
200 grams sugar, divided in half
4 eggs, separated
butter and flour to flour the pan **(to make it gluten free, sub in cocoa powder for flour)
whipped cream and berries to serve
Heat the oven to 375F
Prep an 8" spring form pan by buttering and flouring and put a circle of parchment on the bottom (if you want to make it totally gluten free you can butter and instead of flouring, use cocoa)
Put a stainless bowl over a pot of simmering water and gently melt the chocolate and the butter together. When it's all melted add the vanilla and give it a good stir with a spatula.
Divide the eggs into two steel bowls -whites in one, yolks in the other. Whisk in 1/2 cup of sugar with the yolks until they are pale and ribbony. In the other bowl, beat the whites into soft peaks. Sprinkle the other 1/2 cup of sugar over the whites and beat until stiff peaks.
Slowly melt your melted chocolate/butter into the yolks, whisking the whole time so that it doesn't cook the egg. When the chocolate/butter is totally mixed into the yolks, stir in a spoonful of egg white. When that is mixed in, gently fold in the rest of the whites with your spatula until it's totally incorporated. Pour this mixture into your prepared spring form pan and put in your hot oven. Bake for 50 minutes.
Take the cooked cake out of the oven, run a clean knife around the outside edge and let cool completely in the spring form pan.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or creme anglaise or just about anything. Again, serve with a nice salad to turn it into a healthy week night supper.
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