I’m back! Spring is here and I’m emerging from a pretty serious and unprecedented cooking rut, during which I managed to make nothing that tasted good and then took it one step further and stopped making anything altogether. I stopped going to Fairway and started ordering a lot of takeout. Sounds depressing, I know. It was! But not to worry, root vegetable season is nearly behind us, the sun is out (never mind that the high has barely broken the mid-50 degrees), and I’ve got my spark back…sort of. We’ll get there.
We’re not easing back into the swing of things – I’m offering up the most indulgent dessert I can think of to celebrate the beginning of my “fiscal year” (just had a birthday which is the real start of a new year in my book). My birthday certainly was an indulgent weekend – not so much with regards to food, though it was an endless parade of carbs, mostly in the form of pizza – and this cake fits right in with the theme.
Sometimes, I like to eat things that make me think or surprise me. Like, “Wow, there are so many layers of flavor in this unusual dessert!” or “Is that rosewater I taste?” But other times, I want to eat a forkful of cake that makes me think “Holy crap, this cake is so rich that my head might explode. YUM!” The kind of cake where you think you can really only handle 3-4 bites but actually you eat the whole thing and feel kind of bad, but also really good afterwards. THIS IS THAT CAKE.
What’s funny is that, often, the richest, most indulgent cakes out there require the least amount of effort and ingredients. This is also that cake. Eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla and a pile of dark chocolate…these are things I keep on hand at all times. I’m never more than about 2 hours from this cake, which is both inspiring and incredibly scary.
And so there you have it. The bête noire, the cake of your dreams and nightmares. Make it as a cake, make it as cupcakes, make sure you lick the bowl. Happy spring, everyone – you deserve it.
Ingredients
- 1/2 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 9 oz. dark bittersweet chocolate (65 to 70% cocoa solids)
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons (6 oz.) butter, at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and sugar an 8-inch springform pan or 8 muffin tins (NOTE: if you use muffin tins, you may want to use silicon liners. I made this recipe as both a large cake and mini ones and found it difficult to extract the minis from the pan).
- Using a paring knife, cut down the center of the vanilla bean and scrape out the tiny black seeds into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 1/2 cup water, the sugar, and the pod to the saucepan and bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from the heat. Allow the syrup to rest for 10 minutes before removing the vanilla bean. Dry the bean and save for another use. (If you are using vanilla extract, you will add it later.)
- Chop the chocolate into 1/2-inch pieces and place into a medium-sized bowl. Pour half of the hot vanilla syrup over the chocolate and begin whisking the mixture gently. (The chocolate will seize a bit.) Add the remaining vanilla syrup and continue whisking until you have a shiny, thick chocolate sauce, 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, to the chocolate sauce, whisking after each addition. Whisk in the salt and the vanilla extract if you have used a vanilla bean in making the syrup. Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking the batter until all the butter is incorporated. The finished chocolate cake batter should be shiny and somewhat viscous. The batter can be made up to this point and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- If the batter has been refrigerated, allow it time to come to room temperature. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, evening the batter with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until the center of the cake is set and the top has cracked and developed a glossy, thin crust, 45 to 60 minutes (25 to 30 minutes if you are using individual molds). If the center seems a big jiggly, bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour before serving.
- Serve this cake with a dollop of whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.
- The cake will keep, wrapped and at room temperature, for 2 days.
Notes
https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2015/04/06/chocolate-bete-noire/
