Chocolate Valentino

This months Daring Bakers Challenge, is all about chocolate…. and ice cream. But most importantly chocolate!! February is for Valentines Day. Love. Romance. Chocolate.

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.

I apologize for the wording in the above paragraph… please let me explain. In order to get credit for completing the Daring Bakers Challenges we have a nifty program that goes through every members blog and checks to see if their post is in fact there. The program checks for the above paragraph as confirmation. So any DBers blog that you go to for this recipe will have the above paragraph somewhere in their post. I think this program is fantastic! and certainly helps to keep the blogroll up to date. The host decide what that paragraph will say, and herein lies my issue. They write it from their perspective… really the paragraph should say: They have chosen. As if it were something that I wrote. It drives me nuts!! So that’s why the above paragraph says that… its not me. Ok end of rant…. moving on…

So this challenge was to make the Chocolate Valentino Cake and an ice cream of our choice (we could use one of the recipes provided or we could use our own). I decided to use dark chocolate. I LOVE dark chocolate. Definitely my weakness!!! I paired the dark chocolate with orange and it was to die for! Delicious! Mouth wateringly delicious!! I had never made ice cream before so I opted to use one of the recipes provided by the hosts and kept the flavour simple… vanilla.

The dark chocolate and orange cake was really really good and I will probably make it again. It had the texture of a brownie. The dark chocolate was very intense but worth it! My ice cream also turned out fairly well for my first attempt. It could have used an extra stir, but I made this in the evening and I couldn’t stay up any longer (after 4 stirs already!).  I would make my own ice cream again, but I would probably use another flavour and I would try a different recipe. I found a few days later when eating this ice cream it left a weird greasy feeling in my mouth…. almost like I had eaten Vaseline :S uck!! But the first day it was ok… maybe its only good for a short period of time… anyway…

My awesome husband made me the most scrumptious homemade blue cheese hamburgers ever for Valentines Day (we will make these again and I will be sure to take pictures and post them)!! And I made us dessert to top off the meal. It was one of the best valentines day dinners ever!! Anyone can pick up the bill at a restaurant, but when you cook for someone (even if you screw up) it shows a lot of effort and love!!

 
Chocolate Valentino
From Sweet Treats By Chef Wan

Ingredients

454 g of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (I chose dark chocolate)
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

Instructions

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. (I added orange zest to my mixture)
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. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
    

Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis

Ingredients

1 Vanilla Pod (I used vanilla extract)
1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk (I used whole milk)
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 ¼ cups Double Cream

Instructions

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways.  Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil.  Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
   Lift the vanilla pod up.  Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 
3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly.  Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl.  Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon.  Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container.  Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
   

~ by mixbyhand on February 28, 2009.