 | | | Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cake Photos Susie Iventosch | | | | | | This cake is rich, dense, and definitely very chocolaty. Made with a full pound of bittersweet chocolate, eggs, a little sugar and Amaretto, it is decadent and delicious. We love to serve it with raspberry coulis and a dollop of vanilla whipped cream. The original cake was one my mother-in-law made for family gatherings. She found it in the newspaper as one of the featured desserts at the iconic Chanterelle Restaurant in Manhattan. We have made a few changes, substituting brown sugar for white, Amaretto for orange or coffee liqueur, and all bittersweet chocolate in place of the combination of semi-sweet and unsweetened. I hope you enjoy this cake as much as our family does!
We also make it in two smaller springform pans when we want to freeze some for later or if we have a smaller group that we are serving. This cake freezes well, and all you need to do is completely wrap it in plastic wrap before freezing it. Be sure to let it chill for a few hours in the refrigerator before wrapping it up for the freezer. When you want to serve it, remove it from the freezer, remove the plastic wrap and thaw it out for an hour or so before serving.
Because the cake is made with beaten egg yolks and beaten egg whites, you want to be very careful when folding the chocolate and eggs together. You don't want to deflate the eggs you've worked so hard to whip up! Also, due to the eggs, the cake will puff up when it's baking and as it cools, it will fall and that's what makes the cake so dense and rich. I just don't want you to be surprised as your 3-inch cakes falls to one and one half inches in height!
Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake
(Serves about 20 small but perfect slices)
INGREDIENTS
16 oz. Bittersweet chocolate chips, or bars, coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup Amaretto (or your favorite liqueur like Kailua, or Cointreau)
9 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream (beaten for garnish)
Dark chocolate shavings
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch spring-form pan, or two 7-inch springform pans. Dust the bottom and sides with flour. (This really helps prevent the cake from sticking to the pan.)
Melt chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over low heat, or in the top of a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Stir in vanilla and Amaretto.
Meanwhile, beat egg yolks with brown sugar until very thick and the mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are removed. Gently fold chocolate mixture into the egg yolks.
Beat egg whites in your mixer, or in a bowl with clean and dry beaters until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites in three batches into the chocolate-egg yolk mixture. Do not over mix or beat the mixture, because you want the air to stay in the mixture.
When just blended, pour the mixture into the prepared pan(s). Bake 25-30 minutes for the 10-inch, and 20-25 minutes for the 7-inch pans, or just until the center of the cake is barely set and still a little bit jiggly. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Refrigerate at least an hour, or overnight before serving.
When ready to serve, slice cake and serve with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream (or barely sweetened with a little Amaretto or whatever liqueur you used), and chocolate shavings. We make our chocolate shavings by running a potato peeler over a bar of dark chocolate and it works out well, but if you have another method, that is great too!
Raspberry Coulis
(Makes about 1 cup of coulis +/-)
INGREDIENTS
12 oz. fresh raspberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
DIRECTIONS
Make a simple syrup by whisking the sugar and water together in a small pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue on a low boil until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, place rinsed raspberries into the food processor. Pour warm simple syrup over the berries and process until smooth.
Strain the mixture through a mesh sieve to eliminate the seeds, pressing down through the sieve with the back of a spoon. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the strained sauce into the receptacle bowl. Mixture will cool down through the straining process. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and set aside if using soon, or refrigerate until ready to serve. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA