Flourless Chocolate Cake

[Safado]

I was wondering if anyone can confirm this for me. I am planning on making this cake tomorrow, but I just noticed there is no flour in the ingredients. Will it work? I am imagining it turning into more of a sauce.

Secondly, I am planning on using hot fudge instead of the white chocolate, but would prefer to make/buy a white chocolate sauce. Does anyone have a recommendation/recipe?

Finally, What does "ribbon like" mean when it says:

on medium speed,beat the egg yolks until pale yellow and ribbon like

I am not sure the policy of posting recipes. This is from the food network, so here is the link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_5221,00.html

 

[amber]

I suppose the cake holds together because of the tremendous amount of egg whites and yolks and the cooking time of almost two hours. The only flourless cake I have seen uses ground almonds as the base.

Ribbon, I think means lightly beaten such that you still see some of the yoke, not completely scrambled.

Hot fudge comes in a jar which should be heated with a double boiler, but white chocolate chips can be melted the same way.

 

[college_cook]

The recipe will work... though it will probably not be fluffy like most cakes, but more dense like a brownie. The eggs will give the cake structure when they cook, so it will not be soupy.

I'm not quite sure about the reference to ribbons.

As for chocolate sauces, doing a search either on this site or on google will yield many good results. You can choose the one you think you will like best.

 

[philso]

first off, whether this will come out as a "cake" or not completely baffles me, and i've worked as a pastry chef in the past. my first impression is that it's more like a chocolate souffle, but even a souffle uses flour.

one of my favorite chocolate cakes is flourless. i entirely replace the flour in a genoise with 1/2 almond powder & 1/2 pure cocoa powder. it's technically a torten i suppose, but very nice with a ganache.

what "ribbonlike" means is this. if you withdraw a wooden spoon from the egg mixture, it won't come off of the spoon the way milk pours from a container, but rather in a sheets, thin but wide. something like the shape of your tongue, but thinner and longer. you'll know you're getting there when the mixer leaves a well-defined trail. the volume will be about 3 or 4 times the original volume, and the yellow color will look "creamy".

be careful to not beat your whites too much, because they can break down when you bake them. beat them until you think they are stiff, and then stop.

you can make a white chocolate sauce simply by either: melting some white chocolate in a double boiler over low heat & then whisk in some cream. drop a bit onto a saucer to cool and see if it's the consistency you want.
or, bring some cream to a boil and stir in some white chocolate. test the same way. off hand, i'd say try a ratio of about 3 parts choc. to 1 part cream and see which way you want to go. or, i'm sure you can google up some actual recipe's.

good luck

 

[jasonr]

Secondly, I am planning on using hot fudge instead of the white chocolate, but would prefer to make/buy a white chocolate sauce. Does anyone have a recommendation/recipe?

Huh? You mean the recipe calls for white chocolate, and you're going to replace it with what... some kind of store-bought hot fudge?

Well do what you want, but don't be surprised if your recipe fails. Why not just do things properly and correctly?

Incidentally, flowerless cakes are quite nice. I have a recipe for a flourless chocolate cake that works quite well. As I recall, it uses alot of egg whites, and you pipe it out in a spiral. Very rich and tasty, more like a brownie than a cake.

 

[Ishbel]

This sounds like a type of chocolate roulade. I can't find my fave recipe for it which I thought I'd posted on here - but here's one from a BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chocolateroulade_83888.shtml

 

[marmalady]

Here's a TNT recipe I use for a flourless chocolate cake -it's so rich and dense and moist, a little goes a very long way! Posting it for comparison to your recipe:

OAXACAN CHOCOLATE MOCHA CAKE

​

serves 10

1lb.bittersweet chocolate 8oz. butter 6 large eggs
2T finely ground espresso beans

Preheat oven to 425. Line a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper.
Combine chopped chocolate and butter in large pot over simmering water til melted; remove from heat.
Place eggs in mixing bowl over warm water til lukewarm. Beat with electric mixter til light in color and tripled in volume, about 3 minutes at medium speed, then at high speed for another 5 minutes.
Add half the beaten eggs and ground espreso beans to chocolate mixture and fold in. Then add remaining eggs and fold in til just a few streaks remain; do not overmix. Pour into cake pan and place in roasting pan. Fill pan with boiling water to come halfway up the pan; transfer to oven and bake for 5 minutes. Cover cake pan with foil and bake in water bath and additional 10-15 minutes. Set aside t cool n rack 45 minutes; then refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. To remove cake from pan; place pan over low burner a minute or two; run a sharp knife around inside to loosen, and invert onto platter.

Crema topping:
2 cups heavy cream ¼ cup buttermilk

Whisk cream and buttermilk together; cover and set in warm place for at least 8 hours.
Make raspberry coulis by pureeing raspberries and sugar in blender.
To serve, spread coulis on plate; place cake in middle, and a dollop of crema on top of cake; garnish with a few fresh raspberries.

 

[Gretchen]

A flourless chocolate cake is a wonder to behold and to taste. My recipe calls itself "chocolate mousse cake" and is indeed that--a baked chocolate mousse.

It holds its shape by the amount of eggs, butter, chocolate, sugar it has. It is a very dense cake--not souffle like at all. It also gains a certain lightness by the beating of the eggs and egg whites.

For a ribbon, beat your egg mixture for a number of minutes on high. A ribbon, as Julia Child describes it, is when you lift the beaters and move them back over the top of your beaten egg mixture, a ribbon can be seen where the egg mixture from the beaters falls down on the surface of the bowl--it holds that shape for a moment. A bit like you get in mayonnaise.

The subbing of a chocolate fudge sauce for the white chocolate sauce is no problem--he doesn't even give the recipe. BUT I would say, it is gilding the lily and this cake does not need it AT ALL. It is basically the recipe I use. I would garnish it with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa on that. Cut in slivers. It is SO SO rich!!

 

[licia]

I've made a chocolate torte that was also called "flourless chocolate cake". It is moist and rich and delicious and quite different than the usual chocolate cake, but worth the effort. I'd say use the recipe as it is.

 

[Safado]

I went ahead with the recipe. One thing that I failed to mention is the reason I was looking at this particular recipe was because the girl, whose birthday it was for, asked for something "rich and chocolaty." It certainly fit the bill. I did make a white chocolate sauce in a double boiler. One 11 oz bag of white chocolate and 1/3 cup whipping cream. I drizzled that over the top. Then instead of the mint the recipe calls for, I made a raspberry coulis, as was recommended by one of the people, who left comments on the food network page. I served it with vanilla ice cream, and the coulis drizzled over everything.

It was VERY rich. Everyone said they liked it, but I thought a little went a long way. Also even though it was cooked through, and passed the toothpick test, it fell. The presentation was less than stellar of the cake, though the individual pieces looked incredible. The texture was just a little pasty, but I am not sure what caused that. I am not sure if I will make this again. If I know it is for a party of at least 15 people, I probably would. If you make it, cut the pieces small, and I would really recommend the raspberry sauce. We have been eating plain ice cream with it, and just that is incredible.

One lbs frozen raspberries
half cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 t. grated orange peel
It wasn't called for, but I added two tablespoons Grand Monarch ( a cheaper version of the Grand Marnier) I figured the extra orange flavor would be good.

Heat it in a sauce pan. When the raspberries thaw, blend it for a bit. Add mixture back to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 8-10 minutes, stirring always. Then strain it. Straining it took some time for me, because the only strainer I had fine enough to strain the seeds held about a 1/4 cup at a time.

 

[Gretchen]

It may have just been the nature of the beast to fall--which is often the reason for having whipped cream or your chocolate sauce as a deliciously cosmetic "fix". It has no leavening except the egg whites so very little structure to hold it. Mine is just a couple of inches thick.
YES, it is decadently rich and a little does go a long way--slivers are the serving size.