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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Silky chocolate cake

February 13, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

So we have this wonderful big lovefest tomorrow – Valentine’s Day!! A terrific holiday in my book!

If you don’t have time to make this on the 14th, no matter. Keep the holiday going and make it on the weekend.

I have been making this cake for nearly 20 years now and it is a true winner. It is orgasmic – full of rich chocolate and butter. You can just sink into it, and if you died, it wouldn’t be bad.

Every time I make this cake for a dinner party, guests always either pick at the crumbs on the serving plate or just want another piece. It is rich, rich, rich and totally yummy. And it’s easy to make. Enjoy!

SILKY CHOCOLATE CAKE
-serves 8 – 10

2 sticks plus 2 tbs. (9 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I use Scharffen Berger)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, beaten
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Extra butter to butter the pan

Preheat the oven to 350°. Wrap the outside of an 8 or 9 -by-3-inch round springform pan in heavy-duty foil, then generously butter the inside of the pan. Set the springform in a roasting pan.

In a saucepan, combine the butter with the granulated sugar and water and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth and all the chocolate is melted; let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the eggs until blended. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Pour enough hot (not boiling, but hot) water into the roasting pan to reach one-third of the way up the side of the springform. Bake the cake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the top is crusty and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the cake cool in the springform on a rack for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and the side of the pan and let the cake cool completely. Dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream with some vanilla. A few fresh raspberries are also a nice addition.

Silky chocolate cake, side view on a plate.Silky chocolate cake top view on a handmade plate from South Africa.Silky chcocolate cake piece - yummy!

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Scharffen Berger chocolate, silky chocolate cake, sinful chocolate, Valentine's day desserts

Brownies!

July 4, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Brownies with nuts on a white plate.
I thought you might need this recipe for your picnic today, perhaps?

I’ve been told I make the best brownies. You can decide for yourself. These are easy and delicious, but it is always about the quality of the ingredients you use. And that goes for cooking anything! I try to use the BEST chocolate I can get my hands on, Mexican vanilla, which I adore, (I bought several bottles of it when we were on a family vacation there. People go there all the time, so ask your friends to bring you back a bottle if they’re going. It’s easy to find, they even sell it at the airport!), high quality unsalted butter and the freshest walnuts. (Keep your nuts well wrapped in ziplock bags in the freezer and they will never go rancid.)

It is important to melt your chocolate and butter together, but not completely. Remove from the microwave with still some chunks of chocolate and stir rapidly. They will finish melting on their own and you will not have hurt the chemical composition of the butter and chocolate by overheating. In my relatively new microwave, I do two rounds of 30 seconds on high heat and stir in between. But not all microwaves are the same. You may want to do two rounds at a lower power setting.

Two are two other important things to remember. Beat well after adding each egg. After adding the second egg, beat to achieve a shiny look and consistency and then beat in your salt thoroughly. The last thing you add is the flour, nuts and vanilla, and you don’t want to beat too much when mixing that in. The other important thing to remember is to not over bake them. 22 – 25 minutes is perfect in my oven. Baking them too long will not give you the soft, luscious, fudgey interior.

Enjoy!!

BEST BROWNIES
– makes 16

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger), cut into chunks
8 tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing pan, cut into tablespoons
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt (French grey salt is the best)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a medium bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir and decide whether to microwave for another 30 seconds or keep stirring until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is silky smooth. Meanwhile, butter an 8 1/2-inch-square baking pan.

Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add your pinch of salt and beat until shiny and smooth. Add flour, vanilla and walnuts and stir to incorporate – no traces of flour should remain, but do not over stir.

Pour batter mixture into pan, and smooth out evenly. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting into 16 squares.

Brownie batter in a bowl.

Beautiful shiny batter.

Brownie batter in a pan.

Right before going into the oven.

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: best brownies, brownies, butter, chocolately, French grey salt, Mexican vanilla, rich fudgey brownies, Scharffen Berger chocolate, walnuts

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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