A Thousand Miles From The Place I Was Born

This month, The Daring Bakers returned to the realm of chocolate. Which made me squeal just a little bit. I knew that I would prepare this challenge for the Valentine’s Day dinner that I had with CCB, Lauren, my friend Kim and her son Bailey, and it did not disappoint. But before I tell you all about the challenge, I need to get the formalities out of the way:

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.

Now that the Daring Bakers auto-check thingy will find this post and give me credit, here we go:

This challenge was a flourless Chocolate Valentino cake and homemade vanilla ice cream. I chose Wendy’s recipe for the ice cream, which was insanely simple and in the end, quite delicious:

Wendy’s Ice Cream Recipe
Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla

Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too). Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.

While the ice cream was resting in the freezer, I started to prepare the Valentino. Finally! A use for the heart-shaped insert that came with my springform pan!!

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
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.
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.

I served the Valentino with the ice cream and a simple raspberry sauce that CCB made from raspberries, sugar and a touch of lemon juice. It was really very delicious.

So what did I learn from this challenge?

• While I LOVE Bittersweet chocolate, and was using my favorite Scharffen Berger chocolate for the recipe, it was a little too rich for me. The ice cream and the raspberry sauce helped cut the richness, but I think next time I would make it with half bittersweet and half semisweet, to lighten it up a bit.
• Homemade ice cream does not last long in my house and next time, I should make a double batch.
• Note to self: learn how to photograph food.  Sheesh.