It’s the end of the month and time for a Daring Baker’s post again! In the spirit of Valentine’s Day we were instructed to make a flourless chocolate cake and accompany it with an ice cream of our choice. Having missed the last two challenges cause I’m a total lame-o, I was mega excited about doing this challenge. In fact, I actually didn’t procrastinate like I usually do and made it ahead of time! High five, Rebecca!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They 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.

This cake is extremelyyy chocolatey, which is perfect for all you chocolate lovers out there. I used a huge block of dark chocolate so the ice cream was definitely needed to tone down the extreme richness of this cake. Seriously, it’s so rich that it’s hard to eat it plain, but I’m sure there are some chocolate loving people out there that would have no problem with it. I also covered my cake in brown sugar whip cream to assist in toning down the chocolateyness.

Some of the things that they told us to keep in mind while making this cake is that you should use your favorite chocolate. This cake will taste EXACTLY like the chocolate you use. This cake also has a high cocoa percentage, which increases the bitterness of a cake. If you want a sweeter cake, then use milk chocolate. Also, some people were able to make this cake with white chocolate, but it isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish because white chocolate is not the same as real chocolate. If you do produce a cake with white chocolate it won’t be the prettiest thing in the world, but I’m sure it’ll taste great.

Note on recipe – the recipe consists of 3 simple
ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The
simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the
same way of French baguette.
-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.
-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.
-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.
-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

Chocolate Valentino

(Recipe from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy)
I used a 6 inch pan and got two cakes out of this recipe.

• 16 oz/1 pound/454 grams of chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) + 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 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. 10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

As seen in my previous post, Brown Sugar Toffee Ice Cream with a Dulce de Leche Swirl is my current ice cream obsession so it was obvious that I’d choose to make that to go along with this cake. I decided to follow the theme of my ice cream and made brown sugar whip cream to cover the cake. I felt like a frosting would have been too much so a light whip cream was perfect. I also sprinkled toffee bits along the top and covered the sides of one of the cakes completely in toffee bits. I also added dark chocolate curls for decoration and tried to make white chocolate curls, but they turned more into flakes so I just scattered them on top too. 

This cake was good, but again not quite my tastes. I’m not a major chocolate lover and I also only like my cakes chilled, but that sort of hardened the cake too much. I think I might have also baked it too long (considering it’s hard to tell when it’s done) because my cake came out pretty dry. It was still good for a new treat to enjoy, but I think my cakes actually got thrown out in the end because no one wanted to eat them. Oh well!

I don’t know why I made this ice cream the first time. Maybe I always wanted to learn how to make dulce de leche or maybe I was so mesmerized by this recipe that I didn’t care that it would be more work. I guess it really doesn’t matter because all I know now is that this ice cream is the best I’ve ever had. I love is so much that I’ve made it multiple times and would be more than happy to eat nothing, but this ice cream for the rest of my life. Brown sugar toffee ice cream by itself sounds really good, but having the gooey, delicious dulce de leche swirled throughout this ice cold custard from heaven makes it almost orgasmic.

If you’ve been dying to buy that fancy shmancy ice cream maker, then this should be your reason to go for it. Just the thought of living without this ice cream seems almost pointless. You must make it! Okay, that’s a bit overdramatic, but seriously, you get the idea. This ice cream is pretty damn good. Make it already!

Brown Sugar Toffee Ice Cream with Dulce de Leche Swirl

(Recipe from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy)

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split with the seeds scraped out
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Toffee bits (as many as you want)
• 1 cup dulce de leche (recipe below)

1. Heat the milk, 1 cup heavy cream, salt, and both sugars in a saucepan. Add the vanilla bean seeds and pod to the mixture. Cover the saucepan and let steep for 30 minutes.
2. Pour the remaining heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then slowly pour in the warm milk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the contents back into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Put the vanilla bean back into the custard and chill thoroughly.
4. When chilled, remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.
5. During the last few minutes add the toffee bits to the ice cream so that they are evenly distributed.
6. Whisk the dulce de leche. When the ice cream is finished churning, pour it into a freezable container, alternating between scoops of ice cream and scoops of dulce de leche. Freeze to desire consistency.
   

I’m a total newbie when it comes to making dulce de leche. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to make it, maybe even ones from scratch that taste better, but until I can find a store that sells it, then this one will work for me. It’s really simple and the only hard part is adding more water to the pot when it starts to get low. Also, there is a very helpful video here that you can watch.

Dulce de Leche

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

1. Remove label from can. With a can opener or even a nail and hammer, poke a few holes into the top of the can so that it can’t explode.
2. Fill a saucepan with water and place can inside. You’ll want enough water so that 2/3 of the can is submerged. Adding too much will cause the water to splash onto the top of the can and go inside your holes.
3. Boil the water for 3-5 hours depending on the thickness desired. (I usually cook mine for 4 hours and it ends up pretty thick). Be sure to refill the water every now and then as well.
4. Once you think it’s ready, remove the can from the water and carefully open it up. Pour all of the contents into a bowl and whisk to get the clumps out. Enjoy!

Note: When you open up the can do not be alarmed if the top of it still looks really liquidy. The bottom cooks the most so although you may have really thick dulce de leche at the bottom, you may still have a light color liquid at the top. I panicked and thought mine wasn’t done, but it will be.