March 4, 2005
From the desk of Jane Galt:Recipe of the day
Want the biggest, baddest chocolate cake you ever had? Try this Devil's Food recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 9-inch cake pans; line with parchment rounds, if you have them (available at cook's shops; they prevent sticking).
Sift together:
2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 coarse kosher
3/8 tsp baking soda
Stir together:
3/4 c. whole milk
3/4 c. whole milk yogurt
Beat together in a mixer five minutes:
2 1/4 cup light brown (aka golden brown) sugar
1 1/8 cup unsalted butter, softened
Meanwhile, melt in a double boiler (a smaller saucepan set inside a bigger saucepan filled with boiling water):
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
Beat into egg-and-sugar mixture:
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon Chocolate Extract (optional, but if you like chocolate, you should really consider ordering it. A teaspoon or so takes your chocolate baked goods to the next level)
Alternately beat in, one-third at a time, the flour and milk/yogurt mixtures, starting with the flour.
Pour into pans and bake until a tester comes out clean.
Frost with following recipe, which is thick and fudgelike.
Bring to a boil in a saucepand:
2 1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 c heavy cream
Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add:
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, sliced
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Stir until smooth. Let cool until room temperature, stirring occasionally. Chill, stirring frequently, until it's thick enough to spread. Frost cake and keep in refrigerator until time to serve.
Posted by Jane Galt at March 4, 2005 7:39 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksYour fourth ingredient to be sifted together could use a little clarification
I concur. "1/2 coarse kosher..." what?
Yup, must be salt, but instead of sifting together (which could be a nonstarter given the salt's coarser grain than plain old table salt) maybe you could just whisk all dry ingred's to aerate?
Jane, why kosher salt particularly? I understand it as a finishing ingred. in savories, since it gives more saltiness for the, er, shake or pinch or whatever, and even in stovetop use where part of salt's function is to draw out liquid - its flatter configuration may give it more surface area in contact with food than plain table salt... but why in baking? Does it make a difference? How ever shall we get our iodine? (Seriously, in your opinion does it add enough to the cake to justify the added expense?)
That's pretty much how I make it with the exception that I halve each layer and make a
German Chocolate frosting. A lot of frosting.
Now that is a cake.
WARNING!!! Thin slices only. That's all you can
handle.
The other missing detail on the kosher is the measurement unit. Teaspoon, no doubt. I don't think it is enough to be a problem in a sifter.
The notion is that a little salt brings out the sweetness, which is why my father would sprinkle a little on watermelon. The coarser salt will mean that this effect is localised. Probably enhances the mouth feel more than the flavor.
This sounds wickedly good, as any chocolate recipe ought to be, but I'm having trouble following it.
At the point "beat into egg-sugar mixture" there doesn't seem to be such a mixture. I assume beat the eggs into the sugar-butter mixture. And how does the melted chocolate get combined? Does some mixture get added to it, or the other way round?
Awesome!!! Atkins chocolate cake. I had a whole loaf of Atkins super soft french bread with my large bowl of Atkins spaghetti noodles tonight. Tomorrow morning, I am looking forward to Atkins biscuits and for brunch, an Atkins bagel with locks and cream cheese. What a great time to be on a diet!
Sounds good. Mississipi Mud Pie or an Oreo Dessert recipe are badass too. Lots of chocolate, but not quite cake. Tempted to post up a recipe for an easy Oreo dessert. (oreo crust, chocolate cream filling, vanilla ice cream + creme de menthe on top.
Jane Galt is an evil person. She alone is responsible for all the overweight people in America. I gained five pounds merely by reading the recipe.
As Jed says, the recipe seems to be missing a line or two, irt when the melted chocolate gets added. My guess would be that you stir it into the egg/sugar/butter mixture just before you start alternately adding the flour mixture and the milk/yogurt.
1/2 teaspoon of salt seems like a small amount for so big a cake; I also doubt there'd be a difference between coarse kosher and regular salt here, since it's going to dissolve in the batter. It would probably be safe to round up the 3/8 tsp of baking soda to 1/2 tsp.
"Parchment rounds" just mean pieces of parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of your 9" round cake pans. There are probably silpat-like things one could buy, but parchment paper works pretty well. (Waxed paper might work, too, tho not as well in my experience.) Some grocery stores carry parchment paper, in the same aisle as the foil and plastic wrap; most kitchen stores carry it, too.
My rough calculation says the cake alone has a bit over 5000 calories, and almost 250 grams of fat; it's comparable to two pans of brownies. Add in the frosting, and you've got over 10,000 calories, and 600 grams of fat. As Steel says, slice thinly. (Um, and there're over 1200 grams of carbs; Brad must be on the new Atkins "carb-max" plan.)
Yeah, Steel & PJ are right about slicing thinly. We tried this recipe yesterday, and it's a terrific cake, but it must serve about 30 people. We've been taking it around and giving it to our neighbors. I didn't think chez Galt was big enough to host a dinner to which this cake would be a proportional dessert.
And David, if McDonald's can be sued despite publishing their nutrition info, I thnk Jane is toast. At least McDonald's doesn't bait-and-switch like this; I came here for the fat-free intellectual brilliance, and now I have clogged arteries.
Huh. I'll have to make side-by-side cakes, one with kosher, one with table salt, and do a taste test. I'll get right on it... (after the laundry).
Comments are Closed.