You can't have enough flourless chocolate cakes

We are over a week into the new school year - 3rd grade for my little guy! After more than ten weeks of summer vacation, we were both ready for school again (okay, maybe mom more so than child).  This was the first year that I slept easy the night before school began - no nerves or nightmares!  Maybe it was a sign because so far, so good...I have a really good feeling about the year but I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed!

To kick off the school year, we like to have a little celebration dinner and I've gotten into the habit of making a "back-to-school cake" (like this one and this one).  You don't need a reason for cake but it's certainly nice to have something to celebrate so I appreciate every opportunity.  I had intended to try the Hershey's chocolate cake as our back-to-school cake this year but since that became a birthday cake for a family gathering, I looked for another idea. Forgetting that I'm supposed to be "playing with flour", I went with something sure to please (us, anyway) - flourless chocolate cake!

I've made and enjoyed many flourless chocolate cakes; this everyday version and this far more decadent one comes straight to mind but there have been many.  Much like molten chocolate cake or brownies, I feel like you can't have enough flourless chocolate cakes so here's another recipe to try.  If, like us, you love chocolate and use the kind you like to eat to make the cake, it can be a little slice of chocolate heaven.  Add some vanilla ice cream into the picture and you have a pretty great way to cap off a celebration dinner at home.

This particular flourless chocolate cake is called "Racines Cake" because the recipe comes from a restaurant in Paris by that name.  It's a recipe I've bookmarked for a long time from one of my favorite cookbooks.  With the exception of the cocoa nib topping for this cake, there's frankly not a whole lot separating this particular flourless chocolate cake from others.  So in other words, it was predictably good!  Simple as that.  It's a moist, chocolaty, smooth cake.  I think it has just the right amount of richness to it.  To make sure you end up with a fudgy, moist interior, check on the cake early so that you pull it out while it still seems just a bit wet in the center. My little cake only needed about 16-17 minutes in the oven.

You'll notice I shrank this cake down to size to make a small-family friendly 6-inch.  It's not that we can't handle a 9-inch cake of this kind but I like to make room for other desserts!  When we were vacationing in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I got a chance to check out the adorable Miette Bakery at the Ferry Building.  Known for their small cakes, I saw they had some 6" baking pans with removable bottoms for sale.  I was very tempted to buy one on the spot (I liked them because small springform pans never seem deep enough). Long story short, I ended up ordering one online after coming home and used it for this cake.  I was worried removal might not be as easy as using a springform pan but it worked very well.  I'd definitely use it in the future to make small cheesecakes or to make smaller versions of other cakes that require a springform type pan.

Payard's flourless chocolate cookies - 2 ways

On one of our recent excursions into NYC, we stopped by Payard Bakery for some requisite macarons and a few other sweet treats.  Incidentally, we tried one of their savory sandwiches and it was quite tasty.  Anyway...the visit got me looking up some of Francois Payard's recipes and it brought me to these flourless chocolate cookies that have been fairly widely touted.  I thought it would be fun to give them a try for myself.  I think this is a good time to highlight flourless treats with Passover coming up but these are some pretty special flourless cookies to try for no reason at all.

Payard's recipe is flourless chocolate-walnut cookies.  Some people commend them for being low-fat since there's actually no chocolate (just cocoa powder) in them and only egg whites are used to bind them.  What fat you do find in them is the good stuff, coming from the walnuts.  But you won't find me insinuating they're some sort of "health food" because there's plenty of sugar in the mix.  But the amazing thing about these cookies is their texture.  Somehow, they manage to be moist, fudgy, and chewy (yes, chocolaty too) without the actual chocolate, butter, or egg yolks.  They really do taste and look like brownies in cookie form!  The other thing about these cookies is they are very easy to make.  I mixed the batter in a large bowl, by hand, in a matter of minutes. 

When I made these, I wondered if my little guy would like them.  The little one loves a chocolate cookie or brownie but he still insists he doesn't like walnuts (or other chunks of nuts in his desserts - long story, but that's not really true).  So I offhandedly fed him a bite to test the waters and when he almost took my fingers off trying to inhale as big a mouthful as he could, I knew he was into them.  He quickly scarfed one down and requested more, even acknowledging they were good with the walnuts. 

These were so interesting that I decided to make another batch a few days later and play with the mix-in.  I threw the "no actual chocolate in this recipe" mantra out the window and added some mini chocolate chips and a little bit of cocoa nibs in place of the walnuts.  The result?  They were good but in a side by side comparison, we clearly preferred the original toasted walnut version more (not surprisingly, the pros know what they're doing).  The chocolate chips are tasty but made the cookies sweeter than I liked.  The cocoa nibs added a certain level of smokiness to the cookies without the sweetness so perhaps it may be worthwhile to try what Molly at Orangette did and make a walnut-cocoa nibs version.  But I think I'll stick with the original. 

The sweet taste of success - Coffee Macarons

You know that saying, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," or maybe "third time's the charm".  There must be some truth to it because I finally did it!  My third attempt at making macarons worked!  They all came out with "feet" and peeled off the baking sheets beautifully.  I nearly jumped for joy.  So I present you with my six-year old son's favorite macaron flavor: coffee.  I topped some with a sprinkling of cocoa nibs and filled them with chocolate ganache.  Being the proud chocoholic that I am, I've decided to stick with ganache filling as opposed to buttercream.

At first, I intended to try chocolate macarons one more time to try and finally get it right.  My very first attempt was delicious but a delicious disaster.   The second try came out a lot better but was inconsistent and the macarons still stubbornly stuck to the baking sheet.  I really wanted to get it right and make the chocolate ones (my personal favorites next to hazelnut/praline and maybe pistachio) one more time before moving on to other flavors.  But I thought to myself: "why be so rigid?"  I should try something different.  My son loves the coffee ones and has asked me to make them so I decided to give those a whirl instead.  And it finally happened.  We have authentic macarons in the house!

The first, and major, advantage I had this time around was a properly working oven.  I didn't realize the first time I made macarons that there was something off with my oven.  The second time around, I started to have an inkling.  Turns out, the lighter in the oven needed replacing, and now it quickly fires up nice and hot.  I also learned from books I've read and websites I've visited.  All the information confused me but also helped.  Specifically, the tips in Alice Medrich's book were very helpful and I took her advice about giving the macarons a head start (to "lift off") by heating the oven at a high 400 degree before turning it down to 300 when the cookies went in.  I also baked them longer this time.  It worked.

And miraculously, the macarons came off both the parchment paper and silpat with ease.  Despite how good they looked out of the oven, I was dreading the removal because I'm used to them sticking stubbornly to the parchment paper.  But in this case, the overwhelming majority of these practically peeled right off.  No need to pour warm water under the parchment paper or other tricks.  The backs are so smooth and undamaged, they almost look like the tops.

I really adore macarons.  Not only do they look lovely but I love the taste of the ground nuts in the macarons and its texture.  The outside is crisp and shatters under your bite into that chewiness that surprises you even though you expect it.

So I'm happy to report my successful macaron story today.  I know I still have a lot to learn and who knows how the next endeavor will turn out, but that's alright.  I thoroughly enjoyed the appreciative "mmm..." sound that came out of my little guy's mouth when he tasted these.  We definitely share a love for pastry and confections.

Mocha meringues with cocoa nibs

In my quest to present lighter treats this January, I have another merginue recipe today.  These are mocha meringues, flavored with cocoa powder and a bit of espresso powder.  Instead of chocolate chips, which you could certainly use, I mixed in bits of roasted cocoa nibs.

I've been wanting to experiment with cocoa nibs for a while now.  They are essentially bits of roasted cacao bean, or "raw chocolate" where sugar and other flavorings have not yet been added.  The nibs are crunchy and have a rich chocolate and coffee aroma and flavor to them.  I recently got my hands on some Valhrona roasted cocoa nibs and I'm using them for the first time in these meringues.  I think the cocoa nibs compliment the mocha flavor and give an extra bit of crunch and flavor without adding a lot of extra fat and calories.  As an added bonus, they're also supposed to be quite good for you and very high in antioxidants.

The bit of cocoa and espresso powder really give these meringues quite a lot of flavor while the cocoa nibs add a richness to them.  They are crisp, almost hard on the outside, but nice and chewy on the inside.  I think the trick to making meringue is to really whip the egg whites enough so that you get true stiff peaks.  I don't think I've quite mastered this yet since my meringues spread more than I expected and I suspect I could've whipped those whites a bit further.  Meringues are certainly a low calorie option as far as cookies go since we're basically dealing with just egg whites and sugar, with flavorings (in this case, cocoa and espresso powder) added on.  Supposing you're not concerned about calorie count or fat grams, you could enjoy these meringues with some ice cream.  This bowl here was just for my little guy - honest.

I'm tempted to pretend I've been sitting here this January constantly eating things with wheat germ and only baking low-fat, low-cal treats like meringues but I won't lie.  Not only have I been enjoying my Christmas chocolates (slowly but surely), I've made a couple of chocolate desserts I'll be showing you soon.  Let's just say chocolate and butter will be making a reappearance in the near future.