A few years ago, this flourless chocolate cake recipe in the Sunday paper caught my eye and I saved it. But I never made it until a few months ago. I can’t believe this treasure of a dessert has been waiting in the wings of my recipe notebook! In the interest of full disclosure, when I made the dessert, it came out of the oven a sunken, not-very-appetizing concoction.
Looks can be deceiving.
John has recently declared this his Favorite. Dessert. Ever. Perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients: 7 oz really good (45-50% cocoa) semisweet chocolate, 3/4 cup butter, 1 cup sugar (divided), 4 eggs (separated), vanilla ice cream, fresh raspberries.
1. Preheat oven to 300 degress. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Stir together half the sugar and four yolks; add to melted chocolate concoction. By the way, that’s Matt, my nephew and one of my sweet valentines. He’s a chocolate connoisseur and I’m convinced that he may one day have his own show on the food channel as a dessert critic.
Here’s a close-up:
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and slowly add remaining 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold mixture into chocolate. Pour into a greased 9-inch cake pan.
3. Bake 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few crumbs on it. Cool 30 minutes before removing from pan. Dust with powdered sugar.
I warned you. It’s not very pretty.
4. To make the optional chocolate syrup, cook 2 squares unsweetened chocolate and 1/3 cup water in a heavy saucepan over low heat until chocolate blends with water (about 3 to 5 minutes). Add 1/3 cup sugar, stirring until sugar dissolves (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in 3 tablespoons butter. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
5. Top with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. Garnish with fresh raspberries.
Notes: I use a little less sugar (let’s say 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup) in both the chocolate concoction and the egg whites. Since the chocolate is semisweet, it’s still quite sweet.
To make individual servings, substitute nine ramekins or small oven-safe coffee cups and bake 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
Sorry…….not recommended for diabetics. BUT O SO DELICIOUS!
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Trixie, consider making a raw brownie dessert. Much healthier without sugar!
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True, true…sugar is not our friend! I’d like to try the recipe with Splenda for baking. It’s half the sugar. Or maybe stevia?
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Going to try this with the grandkids tomorrow.
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