Chocolate Valentino (Flourless Chocolate Cake)

I am no Daring Baker (it was their February baking challenge) but with three ingredients, how could I not try this recipe? I'm not a huge dessert person, nor am I a baker, so really the only appeal of this recipe was the fact that it only had three ingredients. Fortunately, this was a very successful recipe for this non-baker.

Notes: I halved the recipe and filled three 5" ramekins (the kind you would use for creme brulee). Only half of each cake could be eaten at a time. These are SO RICH! Since I couldn't halve an egg, I used 2 eggs separated, and added 1/8 cup of Egg Beaters to the egg yolk bowl. I also didn't line the sides of my ramekins with parchment (they were scalloped...I can't be bothered with the time it would have taken), so I sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and the cakes unmolded perfectly. Tasted perfect too, fake egg and all.

16 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated

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. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan (an 8" or 9" spring form pan works best, or six 5 ramekins) and line with parchment, then butter the parchment.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. 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). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. Fold (don't stir!) 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.

Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375 degrees 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.) Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

WC Recipe Exchange Challenge: Oatmeal Cake!

This is my first time participating in any kind of "blog" event. A cooking chat board that I frequent decided to do an exchange of dessert recipes. The rules were simple: submit a recipe, and get a recipe that you have to cook and post in your blog. I was extremely nervous about this given that I am NOT a baker, so I did make one teeny, tiny request when submitting mine: that I don't get assigned a recipe that requires a Kitchen Aid mixer. Granted, you could technically make anything without one of these highly coveted small appliances, but I was hoping for something that might not involve a terribly complicated dough (since like I said, I am not a baker).

I was psyched for this recipe since I LOVE LOVE LOVE oatmeal. And pecans. And brown sugar. When I first read the recipe, for some reason it sounded like an ideal cake for a bundt. I don't know why, but it did. It was a little denser than your typical bundt cake (it didn't rise very much and kinf of jsut hung out in the bottom half of the bundt pan, but it worked (because you could drizzle all the topping gooey-ness over the outside AND inside edges). I had to increase the cooking time ALOT, but it was worth it.

I've posted the original recipe with my changes red. I did make a significant number of changes to accommodate the Weight Watchers fans out there.

1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup quick or old fashioned oats (I used quick for a finer texture)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (I used light butter since thats what I always have on hand)
1 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
1 cup brown sugar (I used 1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar blend...you use 1/2 cup to every cup of brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix boiling water and oats together and set aside. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs to creamed mixture. Add oatmeal mixture and mix well.

Stir flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together and add slowly to wet mixture. Pour into a 13" x 9" pan sprayed with non-stck cooking spray and bake for 30-40 minutes till toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out dry. (To bake in bundt pan, increae cooking time to 65-75 minutes.)

Topping
1 cup brown sugar (I only used 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (I used only 1/4 cup light butter)
2 tbsp evaporated milk (I used 3 to compensate for the left out butter)
1 c coconut (I didn't use this...I hate coconut!)
1/2 c diced pecans

Melt brown sugar, butter and evaporated milk on medium heat in sauce pot until bubbly. Add coconut and pecans and pour over baked cake.

Put back in oven under the broiler until golden brown & bubbly. Cool and serve. (I didn't return the cake to the oven ... it was just fine at room temperature.)

Yields 24 slices.

WW info: 3 points per slice.