Fudgy February

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. When I saw the challenge I knew that I wanted to make it when I went home. You see, it was my dad's birthday, and he loves chocolate cake! I was a little leery of making ice cream. I mean, it's February and it's cold...but I decided to try it anyway. How glad am I that I did...it's the first time that I made ice cream and I now know that I can do it! I decided to do all semi-sweet chocolate. Most people will tell you that you MUST use a high quality chocolate...I say, Toll-House morsels work great! Not to say that high quality chocolate probably does have a smoother taste, but this does not have to be a high budget dessert. For me, the hardest part was melting the chocolate. You see, I was unwise in the bowl I chose for the double boiler and it was too small, making the process take a lot longer than it should have. However, this is a fairly straight forward recipe that results in an impressive, delicious, fudgy cake. My dad appreciated the dark taste of the cake. I paired it with a cinnamon ice milk, which I changed a bit...nope, no cream here. The frozen confection ended up being VERY cinnamony...the intensity of the flavor could easily be decreased by reducing the enormous amount of cinnamon used. If you were aware of the intense flavor, it was delicious. I don't think my brother would agree as he nearly choked when he ate it. However, the rest of us and a guest really enjoyed it. Being that it is simply ice milk, it has a very light texture. I felt like I was eating snow!!! The cinnamon really complemented the chocolate nicely. For more results, check out the Daring Bakers here! 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 (I only used 1/2 cup)
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.

Cinnamon Ice Milk adapted from Gluten-Free Desserts
3 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons Cinnamon - VERY cinnamony...use less if desired
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
original recipe calls for 1/4 cup cocoa...you can use this to make it chocolate flavored, I just didn't want more chocolate!

Directions

Just place all these ingredients into your mixer's bowl, and mix on low speed until the sugar dissolves and the cocoa and cinnamon are distributed nicely (feel free to alter the blance of cocoa and cinnamon to your liking). Then pull your pre-frozen ice-cream maker bowl from the freezer, placed it in the ice-cream maker machine, and fill the bowl with the mixed ingredients and turned the machine on for 20 minutes or until it is done.