Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (9 page)

WHIPPED CREAM

This may be served plain or with whipped cream (my husband and many friends insist it must have cream).

This amount of cream is for 8 or more people.

2 cups heavy cream

⅓ cup strained confectioners sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons kirsch, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip the above ingredients until the cream holds a soft shape. If you whip it ahead of time, refrigerate it, and then stir briefly with a small wire whisk just before serving (it separates a bit while it stands). Serve the cream separately and place a generous amount alongside each portion.

Torte Soufflé au Chocolat

12 TO 16
P
ORTIONS

Le Français is an extraordinary French restaurant in Wheeling, a suburb of Chicago. We were handed enormous menus, but before we had a chance to look at them a parade of food was presented at each table—incredibly elaborate displays on magnificent yard-long silver trays of almost every item on the menu. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It was mind-boggling—more than I could cope with. I whispered to the maitre d’ that I would appreciate it if he would please save some of each of the many chocolate desserts for me, and then I left the rest of the ordering to someone else.

After dinner, on a tour of the kitchen, I asked Jean Banchet, the chef-owner of Le Français, for the recipe for this cake, which he created and which is one of the restaurant’s specialties. (I have adapted it slightly.)

It is a cake, of sorts, not a soufflé (not even light). It is compact, dense, moist, dark, bittersweet—a sophisticated and elegant dessert. When you remove it from the cake pan your heart might sink, as the cake does—but just wait until you taste it. And you can camouflage it with whipped cream and make it look as fabulous as it tastes.

This is not for children, it is for grown-up bittersweet-chocolate-lovers.

Make this early in the day or the day before but do not refrigerate it.

You will need a 10-inch spring-form pan.

4 ounces (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

5 ounces (1¼ sticks) sweet butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

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

⅓ cup Grand Marnier

Pinch of salt

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 300 degrees. You will need a 10-inch spring-form pan which must be at least 2½ inches deep, but it may be deeper. Butter the pan, line the bottom with a round of baking-pan liner paper or wax paper cut to fit, butter the paper, and dust all over with flour. Invert the pan over a piece of
paper and tap lightly to shake out excess. Set the prepared pan aside.

Place both chocolates and the butter in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Cover until partially melted, then uncover and stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the hot water and set aside, uncovered, to cool slightly.

Set aside ¼ cup of the sugar, then in the small bowl of an electric mixer beat the egg yolks with the remaining ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar. Beat at high speed for about 5 minutes until very pale and thick. On low speed gradually add the Grand Marnier, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until mixed. Then, still on low speed, add the tepid chocolate mixture and beat, scraping the bowl, only until mixed. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In the large bowl of the electric mixer, add the salt to the egg whites and, with clean beaters, beat until they hold soft peaks when the beaters are raised or when the whites are lifted with a rubber spatula. Reduce the speed and gradually add the reserved ¼ cup sugar. Then increase the speed and continue to beat only until the whites hold a definite shape—they must not be dry.

If you have a very large rubber spatula, use it now. Add about 1 cup of the whites to the chocolate and fold them in. Then, without being too thorough, fold in about 1 cup more. And then add all the remaining whites and fold in carefully only until the mixtures are blended.

Turn into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan briskly back and forth a bit to level the top.

Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 250 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. (The cake will start to settle down after the temperature is reduced—it is O.K.) When the 30 minutes at 250 degrees are up (or a total baking time of 1½ hours), turn off the oven but do not remove the cake. Open the oven door only about 2 inches (prop it open with a pot holder if necessary) and let the cake cool completely in the oven with the heat off.

When the cake has reached room temperature remove it from the oven. Remove the sides of the pan. Cover the cake with a rack and invert. Then remove the bottom of the pan and the paper lining. Now gently place a large, flat cake plate or serving board on the cake and carefully invert plate and cake, leaving the cake right side up on the plate. The cake will be 1½ inches high.

Now, about camouflaging the cake. It should be served at room temperature—it has a softer and more delicate quality than if it is refrigerated. But if it is covered with whipped cream it will naturally have to be refrigerated.

That leaves two alternatives.

Either wait until just before serving to spread the cream over the top and sides of the cake. Or, if you don’t expect most of the cake to be eaten at the first serving, cut the cake in the kitchen and place large spoonfuls of the cream alongside each portion.

Either way, you may also sprinkle the cream with a few candied violets or rose petals or a dainty sprinkling of shaved chocolate. (At Le Français the cake is served plain with just a sprinkling of confectioners sugar on the top, but I do think it tastes better with whipped cream.)

WHIPPED CREAM

2 cups heavy cream

½ cup strained confectioners sugar

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip all the ingredients until the cream is stiff enough to be spread over the cake. Or, if it is to be served on the side, whip it a bit less so it has the consistency of a sauce.

The cream may be whipped ahead of time and refrigerated. If so, it will probably separate slightly. Just stir it a bit with a wire whisk before using.

Austrian Chocolate Walnut Torte

10 TO 12
P
ORTIONS

This is special! It is a huge (over 4 inches high) flourless chocolate nut sponge cake that is not too sweet and is served without icing … the cake itself is pure drama.

7 ounces semisweet chocolate

8 ounces (2¼ cups) walnuts

12 eggs (graded large), separated (see Notes)

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need an angel-food cake pan that measures 10 inches across the top and 4¼ inches in depth. It must not be coated with Teflon. And it must be the kind that comes in two pieces, the bottom and tube being in one piece and the sides in another piece. Do not butter the pan.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Cover until the chocolate is partially melted, then uncover and stir until completely melted.

Remove the top of the double boiler and set it aside for the chocolate to cool slightly.

The nuts must be ground. This can be done in a nut grinder, a food processor, or a blender. In a food processor or a blender you must be careful not to grind the nuts until they become oily—they must stay dry. They do not have to be very finely powdered but they must be ground, not chopped. Uneven pieces, some a little larger, are O.K. (In a blender do only one-third or one-half at a time. In a processor you can do them all together.) Set the prepared nuts aside.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer beat the egg yolks with ½ cup (reserve ½ cup) of the sugar at high speed for 2 minutes. (Do not beat until the mixture becomes very thick.) On low speed mix in the chocolate (which may be warm but not hot). Then gradually add about half the nuts (reserve the remaining nuts). Remove the bowl from the mixer and set it aside.

Place the egg whites in the large bowl of the electric mixer and add the salt. With clean beaters, beat until the whites barely hold a soft shape. Reduce the speed to moderate and gradually add the reserved ½ cup of sugar. Then, at high speed, continue to beat until the whites hold a firm shape but not until they are stiff or dry.

With a rubber spatula fold one large spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mixture. Then fold in a second large spoonful.

Now transfer the chocolate mixture to a mixing bowl that is larger than the large bowl of the electric mixer. Add about one-third of the remaining whites. If you have an extra-large rubber spatula use it now. Slightly fold the two-mixtures together; do not be too thorough. Then add the remaining nuts and egg whites and fold them all together gently and carefully.

Turn the batter into the unbuttered 10-inch tube pan, handling it lightly in order not to lose the air that has been beaten into it. Smooth the top.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. During baking the top of the cake will rise in a dome shape, but it will flatten almost level with the top of the pan when done.

Remove the pan from the oven.

Now the pan has to be inverted to “hang” until the cake is cool. Even if the pan has three little legs for this purpose they don’t really raise the cake enough. Turn the pan (with the cake) upside down and fit the tube of the inverted pan over a narrow-necked bottle (a 5-ounce Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce bottle is a perfect fit) or place it over an inverted metal funnel.

Now, to remove the cake from the pan: You will need a small sharp knife with a
firm
(it must be firm) blade about 6 inches long. And you must be careful. Insert the blade at the inside of the pan between the cake and the pan, inserting the blade all the way down to the bottom of the pan and
pressing the blade firmly against the pan
in order not to cut into or to crush the sides of the cake. With a short up and down motion (something like using a saw) cut all the way around the cake, remembering to keep pressing the blade against the pan constantly as you cut. Then remove the cake from the sides of the pan by pulling up on the tube and/or by placing your hands under the bottom of the pan and pushing the bottom up. And then, carefully, again pressing the blade against the pan, cut the bottom of the cake away from the pan. Now cut around the tube of the pan.

Cover the cake with a flat serving plate and invert the plate and the cake. Remove the bottom of the pan.

I serve this wonderful cake just as it is. If you want to sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar, do it, leaving the cake upside down. Or make a design with strips of wax paper, sprinkle with confectioners sugar, and then remove the strips of paper (see page 7).

To serve the cake, use a serrated bread knife in order not to squash this extremely light creation.

NOTES
:
1. If you do not have the right size eggs, you can use any size. What you want is 1£ cups of egg whites and a scant 1 cup of egg yolks.

2. Because removing this cake from the pan is such a ticklish job, I have been asked, “Why don’t you butter the pan?” The reason is that the cake is so light and airy that it must cling to the sides of the pan or it will flop.

3. To freeze this cake, do it before removing the cake from the pan. Just wrap it all airtight in the pan. Then thaw before removing the cake from the pan.

The Orient Express Chocolate Torte

12
P
ORTIONS

This was served on the Orient Express during its heyday when it was renowned for luxurious food and service. It is a wonderfully not-too-sweet flourless sponge cake made with ground almonds and ground chocolate that give it a speckled tweed-like appearance and a light, dry, crunchy texture—enhanced by a smooth, rich, chocolate buttercream filling and icing. It may be frozen iced.

3 ounces (3 squares) unsweetened chocolate