2 posts tagged “chocolate”

Saturday night was Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, yes, laugh all you want, but it's fun and I got the opportunity to feed people. For dinner, I just made a large batch of the arroz con pollo I already have posted, but some of us wanted more... something sweet.

I thought about what I had in the pantry, and ended up making chocolate drop cookies. They are soft and chewy, almost like a brownie in cookie form. Be careful not to overcook them!

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

On low speed, beat in flour mixture a little at a time, until well blended and smooth.

Drop chocolate cookie dough onto greased baking sheets by rounded tablespoons, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes, or just until set. Cool on pans on rack for about 5 minutes; transfer chocolate cookies to rack to cool completely.

Yay therapeutic baking! I lose my job and suddenly it's baking time! Lauren called and asked if I wanted to bake with her, so she came over and we decided to make flourless chocolate decadence. After a quick trip to Whole Foods, we got started (in my already semi-messy kitchen, mind you).

1 lb bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

10 tbsp unsalted butter

5 large eggs

1/4 cream of tartar

1 tbsp sugar

Preheat your oven to 325.

The first thing to note is that when making a dessert like this, pick a good chocolate. Chocolate is your key ingredient, so you want it to shine. In other words, no Hershey, alright? Lauren and I picked a local brand: a 62% semisweet Scharffen Berger.

She was given the task of coarsely chopping our pound of chocolate.

While she did this, I went ahead and seperate our egg whites from our egg yolks. Lauren watched so she might be able to learn how to do it. Sadly, one of the yolks broke once it became seperated (but no tainting occurred).

After Lauren chopped up the chocolate, she also chopped up the butter. Now, as strange as it sounds, I do not own a double boiler. However, the Holy Kitchen Bible (The Joy of Cooking) said I could use a bowl in a skillet full of barely simmering water. It actually worked okay. We combined our butter and our chocolate and melted it carefully, stirring the whole time.

Lauren, meanwhile, really gets into her baking.

Still melting...

Finally!

Next, we whisked our 5 egg yolks in to our chocobutter concoction and then I beat our 5 egg whites with our 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. After that, I added in our 1 tbsp sugar and beat again until we had stiff peaks, but they weren't dry. Then, it was time to fold in our egg whites.

Fold, fold, fold, and then you get your final batter. Place that in a greased 9" x 2" round cake pan (note: it's better to have parchment in the bottom of that pan for your baking... we didn't, and I'm telling you now you're better off with it).

Set your cake pan in a large shallow baking dish or roasting pan, set the dish in the oven, then pour enough boiling water in that pan to reach halfway up the sides of your cake pan. Bake at 325 degrees for exactly 30 minutes.

Set your cake pan out to cool completely, then refrigerate until chilled. To unmold it, slide a thin knife around the cake to detach it from the pan. Invert the cake and peel off the paper I told you that you should use (which we didn't and regret since it was hard to get out intact).

Keep refrigerated, but remove one hour before serving to allow to soften.