Saturday, February 28, 2009

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.

41 comments:

Emily said...

Mmm, chocolate cake and ice cream. Does it get better than that?

Lisa said...

Such vibrant colors in your photos! I love the cinnamon ice milk, as my dad used to buy ice milk when I was a child :) Great job all around!

Mrs Ergül said...

I wasn't able to slice my strawberry to look like yours!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous plating, Claire! Your ice cream sounds delicious as well! I'll have to try it. I also laughed at your profile comment about how you didn't like sweet tea because I don't either. That's kinda sacrilege being a southern girl isn't it? :) lol

Joey Biscotti said...

I think yours looks delicious - and that cinnamon sounds like heaven alongside the chocolate. Also really like your photography -great job all the way around!

Lisa said...

YOurs looks beautiful! Nice job!

Sara said...

Looks delicious! The cinnamon ice milk sounds great. :)

Baker at Law said...

I am so happy to hear that I am not the only one who is not a slave to expensive chocolate. I quite often back with the "store" brand chocolate chips. Your flavor combination sounds yummy. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks delicious! Cinnamon sounds like it would go great too!!

Bumblebutton said...

How lovely to make your dad such a nice treat. Yum. Terrific job--you are right--this isn't a recipe that has to break the bank. Bravo!

kat said...

I bet the cinnamon was great with the chocolate!

Anonymous said...

Very pretty, I bet the cinnamon ice cream was very good. Good to hear that the Toll house chocolate worked well.

Min said...

Looks amazing!

minisuperbias said...

beautiful!

genkitummy said...

cinnamon ice milk sounds like a great pairing with the chocolate cake.

CookiePie said...

What a lovely treat for your dad! And I love cinnamon with chocolate cake -- I bet your ice milk was yummy!

Kitchen M said...

Looks delicious!
Thanks for your comment, Claire.

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of cinnamon ice milk. How about using a couple of sticks of cinnamon, rather, and infusing it into the milk so that you get a cinnamon infusion rather than a measured quantity of ground cinnamon?
Beautiful photos by the way!

Anonymous said...

A little hello from France ! Your cake & Ice-cream look lovely ! I do love connamon Ice-cream too...
You've got already srawberries ? Lucky Girl !!!
have a nice day,
Bea

Pearl said...

how sweet of you to make such a delectable treat for your father!

Anonymous said...

Like the addtion of the caramel:) Great job for a wonderfull challenge!

Laurel said...

Mmmm...I love cinnamon. Excellent pairing with your chocolate cake!

Sara said...

your plate looks picture perfect!

Shirley said...

Cinnamon and chocolate go great together. Nothing wrong with ice cream in the winter. I had some last night and it's snowing out! :)

Anonymous said...

Love the combination with the cinnamon ice cream!

Andreas said...

Hi Claire,

very nice pictures of the assembled dish. Cinnamon ice milk sounds gorgeous.

Fran Z said...

Wasn't this cake easy!!?? Wow I bet the cinnamon added a nice contrast!

Rebecca said...

Chocolate and cinnamon? Sign me up!

Jenny said...

Pretty combination. And belated HBday to your Dad.

Anonymous said...

That looks beautiful, Claire; I'll bet it made a very happy birthday for your dad. I hope all is well and that school is going okay!

Jaime said...

shhhhh don't tell - i used tollhouse semisweet chips too! i waited until the last minute and did not have time to go out and buy better chocolate. hubby still loved it! love that first photo!

Peabody said...

Glad your dad liked the cake...always a good thing when you are making a cake for someone.
Job well done.

Maggie said...

I like the idea of super cinnamony ice cream. I cheated and melted my chocolate in the microwave. You have to be careful and go slowly but it beats sitting over a double boiler.

Unknown said...

Lower budget is always a plus. The cinnamon icemilk sounds great!

Abby said...

My dad is allergic to milk, but I think he'd be open to trying your version of ice milk!

What a great dessert. I'm sure your dad was thrilled with it!

Dayna said...

I used the chocolate chips and thought it was just fine too! Next time I may experiment with a spicy chocolate bar though...

Lori said...

Nice job plating this. It looks beautiful!

Sarah said...

Cinnamon ice milk sounds great! I wish I had used a cheaper chocolate. I used Scharffen Berger and the cake wasn't even that good.

Sandie said...

Your ice milk recipe sounds great, I will have to give that a try!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Yummm, the cinnamon ice sounds so interesting! Great job!

Katrina said...

Yum to it all. Great job.