An easy classic, an easy vessel: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Everybody who is close to me knows that I am a sweet tooth having, don’t leave the dinner table till dessert is served kind of guy. That being said, I’m not a big dessert chef. In the past few years I have fought hard to get the basics down. Some cookies, pies, tarts and others. Classic recipes that don’t go out of style and I can pull out without much forethought. That doesn’t stop them from being catastrophes from time to time, BELIEVE me. I've scraped burnt pastry and sugar out of enough tins to know that I still need a lot of work.

This recipe is one of my favorites and also represents my favorite style of dessert: the vessel. This dessert can carry all types of flavors: a little light whip cream, some caramel sauce, a fruit coulis, whole fruit, maybe a little jam, anything can go on this dessert. Try to follow the seasons if you are using fruit and remember that this is a dense, heavy dessert because there is no flour. Don’t serve it after heavy roast slathered in gravy. Strawberries and whipped cream is by far my favorite topping.

My only piece of advice with this one is that because of the relatively short ingredient list, make sure those ingredients are fresh and the highest quality. It’ll make a difference. Also, with most of my recipes you can slide a bit off book, a little more of this, some of that. With baking....don’t try it. She will mess you up. She is mean.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

250g Milk chocolate (use the good stuff, not baker’s chocolate. The darker you use the less creamy it will be)

110g unsalted butter

6 eggs, separated

75g sugar

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350⁰
• Put an inch of water into a saucepan and bring to a low boil. Place a metal or glass bowl onto the top of the sauce pan. The bowl cannot touch the water. A bowl on top will raise the heat inside the pot so remember to turn it down to keep it at a low boil.
• Melt chocolate and butter in the bowl and stir with a spatula until ¾ melted. Take the bowl off the heat and stir until it is fully melted. This technique will prevent the chocolate and butter from burning.
• In a second bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and pale.
• Pour the chocolate mix into the yolks in small sections, stirring constantly. It should be nice and stiff.
• Whip the egg whites in a third bowl until medium, stiff peaks form. This means that when you stop whisking and pull your whisk out, it should leave a peak behind. It might fall back a bit but you can still see it.
• Fold a small amount of egg whites into the chocolate mix to loosen it all up. Then fold the chocolate into the whites in two parts. Work fast to prevent air loss in the whites.
• Pour into a loose bottomed (cheesecake style) pan about 9” in diameter.
• Bake for about 40 mins. The cake will rise a bit and collapse a bit. A knife inserted into the centre will some out clean.
• Let it cool to room temp before unmoulding onto a serving plate. It may crack as it cools.