Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (12 page)

BUTTERCREAM

1 ounce (1 square) unsweetened chocolate

1 ounce semisweet chocolate

1 egg (graded extra-large)

⅓ cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon dry powdered instant coffee or espresso

3 ounces (¾ stick) sweet butter, at room temperature, cut into 8 pieces

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Place both chocolates in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Cover for a minute or so and then uncover and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from the hot water and set aside, uncovered, to cool.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg with the sugar and coffee for 5 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate and beat only to mix. Then add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla and continue to beat briefly until the mixture holds its shape enough to be spread on the cake—it will be the consistency of whipped cream.

Spread about one-third of the buttercream over the cake layer on the plate. Cover with the top layer, placing it upside down.

With a metal spatula cover the sides of the cake and then the top with the remaining buttercream. (If you are working on a cake-decorating turntable, spread the sides and the top smoothly. If not, the buttercream may be swirled.)

DECORATION
:
With additional chocolate make small shavings (see page 263). With a spoon sprinkle them generously over the top of the cake. If you wish, sprinkle confectioners sugar over the shavings.

Remove the wax paper strips by pulling each one out toward a narrow end.

Refrigerate the cake and serve it chilled.

Countess Toulouse-Lautrec’s French Chocolate Cake

10
P
ORTIONS

Mapie, the Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, wrote French cookbooks, food columns, magazine articles about food, and she was the directress of a cooking school for young ladies at Maxim’s restaurant in Paris. She was married to an admiral in the French navy who belonged to the same family as the artist (the artist was her father-in-law’s cousin). Incidentally, like most great artists, Toulouse-Lautrec was also a gourmet and a fine cook himself. The Countess introduced this recipe to America in an article for
McCall’s
Magazine in 1959. Since then it has continued to grow in popularity under a variety of names and adaptations. (The “one tablespoon” measures of flour and sugar are correct.)

This cake is not a cake by American standards. It is rather like a rich, moist, dense cheesecake—like unadulterated and undiluted chocolate. It is best to make it a day before serving or at least 6 to 8 hours before, or make it way ahead of time and freeze it. (Thaw before serving.)

1 pound semisweet chocolate (see Note)

5 ounces (1¼ sticks) sweet butter, at room temperature

4 eggs (graded large or extra-large), separated

1 tablespoon unsifted all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Separate the bottom and the sides of an 8-inch spring-form pan. (The cake will be only 1½ inches high on the sides, so the pan may be shallow or deep—either is all right. Or you could use an 8-inch layer-cake pan that has a loose bottom.) Cut a round of baking-pan liner paper or wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan, and butter it on one side. Butter the sides (not the bottom) of the pan. Put the bottom of the pan in place, close the clamp on the side, and place the buttered paper in the pan, buttered side up. Set aside.

Break up or coarsely chop the chocolate and place it in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Cover until partially melted, then uncover and stir with a rubber spatula until completely melted. Remove the top of the double boiler from the hot water.

Add about one-third of the butter at a time and stir it into the chocolate with the rubber spatula. Each addition of butter should be completely melted and incorporated before the next is added. Set aside to cool slightly.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer beat the egg yolks at high speed for 5 to 7 minutes until they are pale-colored and thick. Add the tablespoon of flour and beat on low speed for only a moment to incorporate the flour.

Add the beaten yolks to the chocolate (which may still be slightly warm but should not be hot) and fold and stir gently to mix.

In a clean, small bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites and the salt until the whites hold a soft shape. Add the granulated sugar and continue to beat only until the whites hold a definite shape but not until they are stiff or dry. Fold about one-half of the beaten whites into the chocolate—do not be too thorough. Then fold the chocolate into the remaining whites, handling gently and folding only until both mixtures are blended.

Turn into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan a bit, first in one direction, then the other, to level the batter.

Bake for 15 minutes. The cake will be soft and you will think it is not done. But remove it from the oven. Do not throw the cake away now. You may think that is the only thing to do, but it is O.K. (However, it might be wise not to let anyone else see it now.) It will be only about an inch high in the middle, the rim will be higher than the middle, and the top will be cracked. Don’t worry—it’s O.K. Baking this cake longer will not prevent it from sinking.

With a small, sharp knife, carefully cut around the side of the hot cake, but do not remove the sides of the pan. Let the cake stand in the pan until it cools to room temperature. Then refrigerate it for at least several hours or overnight. The cake must be firm when it is removed from the pan.

To remove the cake, cut around the sides again with a small, sharp knife. Remove the sides of the pan. Cover the cake with a small cookie sheet or the bottom of a quiche pan or anything flat, and invert. Then carefully insert a narrow metal spatula or a table knife between the bottom of the pan and the paper lining; move it just enough to release the bottom of the pan. Remove the bottom and peel off the paper lining. Invert a serving plate over the cake and invert the plate and the cake, leaving the cake right side up.

The Countess serves the cake just as it is. But you have several alternatives. The most obvious is to cover the top generously (excluding the rim) with whipped cream. But if you do not plan to serve it all at once and you might want to freeze the leftovers, that is not the best plan. You can cover the top generously with large, loose, free-form Chocolate Shavings (see page 263) made with a vegetable peeler and a thick piece of milk chocolate. If you do that, sprinkle confectioners sugar over the top of the shavings. Or cover the top of the cake with a generous amount of fresh raspberries or strawberries or Chocolate-Covered Strawberries (see page 252), and, if you wish, pass soft whipped cream as a sauce. Or cover the top with peeled and sliced kiwi fruit and strawberries. Or cover the cake with whipped cream, cover the cream generously with chocolate shavings, and pass brandied cherries separately to be spooned alongside each portion. Or mound about two-thirds of the cream on top of the cake. Cover the cream generously with chocolate shavings, or dot it with candied violets or rose petals. Fit a pastry bag with a star-shaped tube and use the remaining cream to form a border of rosettes around the rim of the cake. One final option: Cut the top of the firm, chilled cake, removing the raised rim and making the top smooth. Then serve the cake upside down, either just as it is or with confectioners sugar on top.

WHIPPED CREAM

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 2 tablespoons framboise or kirsch

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters whip the above ingredients until they reach the stiffness you want, depending on how you will use the cream.

Serve the cake cold, in small portions—this is rich!

NOTE
:
Many recipes for this cake specify Baker’s German’s Sweet chocolate. Jean Hewitt made a version of it for The New York Times and she used Maillard’s Eagle Sweet chocolate. Sue Britt, the home economist for the Nestlé Company, used semisweet morsels. I have used them all and they were all good.

Sponge Roll with Bittersweet Chocolate Filling and Icing

8
T
O 10
S
LICES

This recipe is from a little patisserie on the French Riviera. I asked the owner if I could watch him make éclairs and he said, “Certainly, come in at four o’clock tomorrow morning.” I was there and for the first few hours I watched him make bread and croissants and brioche and kugelhopf and then I watched napoleons and palmiers and then fruit tarts and petits fours and layer cakes and—this delicate, extremely light sponge roll with bittersweet filling and icing. I didn’t see a single éclair but I thanked him profusely, he gave me a little bag of petits fours, we shook hands and bid each other au revoir.

This is a lovely and elegant cake roll—very French. It can be made a few hours before serving or the day before or it can be frozen (thaw it wrapped). It is quite simple to make and great fun, beautifully professional looking—festive and delicious.

SPONGE LAYER

¼ cup granulated sugar

4 eggs (graded large), separated

3 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

About 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar (to be used after the cake is baked)

Adjust oven rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 15½ × 10½ × 1-inch jelly-roll pan. Line it all, bottom and sides, with one long piece of aluminum foil and butter the foil. Set the prepared pan aside.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer add 3 tablespoons of the sugar (reserve 1 tablespoon) to the egg yolks and beat at high speed for 5 to 7 minutes until the yolks are cream-colored (the French patisserie called it white). Add the flour and beat on low speed, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula, only until incorporated. Remove from the mixer.

If you do not have another small bowl and an extra set of beaters for the mixer, transfer the yolk mixture to a second bowl and wash and dry the first bowl and the beaters. (Or beat the whites with an egg beater or a wire whisk.)

Add the salt to the whites in the small bowl of the electric mixer and beat until they increase in volume and begin to thicken. Gradually add the reserved 1 tablespoon sugar and continue to beat only until the whites hold a definite shape when the beaters are raised or when some of the whites are lifted with a spatula—they should not be beaten until stiff and dry.

Fold one-third of the whites into the yolks, then fold in a second third, and then the final third—do not handle any more than necessary.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan and gently spread it—it should be reasonably smooth and it will stay just where you put it, it will not run—check the corners. But don’t waste any time before putting it into the oven.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip—it will be a pale golden color—do not overbake.

When the cake is done, sprinkle the confectioners sugar through a fine strainer generously over the top. Quickly cover the cake with a piece of wax paper several inches longer than the cake pan (the confectioners sugar will keep it from sticking). Cover the paper with a cookie sheet, invert the pan and cookie sheet (holding them firmly together), remove the pan, and quickly and carefully peel off the foil. Then quickly roll the cake and the wax paper together,
rolling from a narrow end—don’t squash the cake but roll firmly and compactly.

Let stand until cool.

The glaze may be made while the cake is baking or while it is cooling.

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE GLAZE

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 ounce (1 square) unsweetened chocolate

3 tablespoons prepared coffee (normal strength or stronger), or water

3 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature (or if cold, cut into small pieces)

2 tablespoons light or dark rum or Cognac

½ to 1 cup Chocolate Shavings (See page 263. To be used after the roll is iced—the shavings must be made ahead of time and ready to use before the icing hardens.)

Confectioners sugar (to be used after the cake is finished)

Place both chocolates and the coffee in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the butter and stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum or Cognac.

If the glaze was made while the cake was baking, just set the glaze aside and let stand at room temperature.

When the cake is cool and ready to be filled and iced, place some ice and water in a mixing bowl that is large enough to hold the saucepan of glaze.

Place the pan of glaze in the ice water and stir constantly until the glaze thickens slightly—it should not harden but it should be thick enough so that it does not run out of the cake when the cake is rolled. (Lift the pan from the ice water occasionally and stir well to be sure it is not thickening too much on the bottom or sides.)