Flourless Chocolate Cakes

[Baker Dan]

Hello everybody, Baker Dan here from the rolling hills of Vermont. I need your help please. I'm preparing a single layer full sheet pan of flourless chocolate cake and the recipe calls for me to melt the unsalted butter in a thick bottom rondeaux pan adding granular sugar while stirring the butter. Bring the mixture up to a boil. Remove it from the stove and pour this over dark, semi sweet chocolate chips. Let set for thirty seconds. My first question is why we do that? then to slowly whisk in heavy cream, afterwards liquid eggs and flavoring. The mixture is very rich, smells delicious and looks good to me. I then pour it in to a full sheet pan with parchment paper. Baked in a 300 degree oven roughly 35 -40 minutes. The problem I'm having is when the cake is baking it's like spitting or boiling looking. Not the consistency that you would think being a  heavy rich cake. I have done this recipe before with out any issues. Lately how ever  I'm having problems. Usually the top looks like the surface of the moon but together. Mine looks not together like it's not together in ingredients. One thought I had was that I was cooking the butter and sugar to long which I thought might have something to do with that over bake, separated kind of look. Before serving it I could put a thin layer of Ganache over the top. But again, usually I don't have problems and now I 'am and I don't want to change the recipe but feel that I have to. Ok you Pastry chefs out there. I welcome any feed back. Thank you for your valuable time and experience, Baker Dan.

[AlaMoi]

I am far from any kind of 'expert' in 'things chocolate' except for a PhD in eating chocolate....
however some things from history:

how chocolate melts/behaves/cools is hugely dependent on crystal size/shape/form/type.  

sugar is not blanket case "sugar" - sucrose, fructose, dextrose are the three major chemical forms of stuff labelled "sugar" and yes Virginia, they react differently due to their chemical differences.

"chocolate and temperature" have an ancient and often failurizing relationship......compounded by 'zactly what sugar did you melt?

 

if you have used this recipe before and it worked, and now it does not work, something has changed.
Thou shalt not argue with "something has changed / is different" - because there is no other possible explanation.

 

water content of the ingredients would be my first guess.  no, unsalted butter is not unsalted butter.  brands differ.  same with chocolate chips - brand differ.

 

double checked the oven temps?  thermostats do go wonky.....

[gfron1]

Just thoughts - my favorite recipe just has you melt the butter, not boil it. Also, I could imagine that if the mixture wasn't mixed well, you could have pockets of butter that could erupt.

 

To elaborate on my recipe - in double boiler melt chocolate and sugar, add butter, mix; add eggs and flavor, mix. Pour and bake. A much more gentle process than yours.

[Lisa Shock]

Your recipe is very derivative, appears to have been written and re-written by home cooks, and I think you're seeing the results. I have no idea why the author of your recipe wants you to bring butter and sugar to a boil. Butter has two crystalline structures and also has emulsification properties (all useful to the process of this custard setting) and you lose all traces of all three when you get it too hot.

 

I have only seen cream listed in ingredients lists when it is to be whipped and served as a topping.

 

Here is an NYT article on the history of the recipe.

 

Original ingredients were:

1 lb semisweet chocolate

10Tbsp unsalted butter

1tbsp unbleached AP flour

1 Tbsp sugar

4 eggs, separated

sweetened whipped cream, as a topping

 

(my synopsis) Method: melt chocolate in a double boiler, whisk in butter, flour, sugar. Beat yolks and stir in, whip whites, fold in, bake.

 

Rose Levy Beranbaum also has a good recipe with clear instructions. She gets away with no added sugar by using a good, very balanced eating chocolate.

I would avoid chocolate chips as they tend to be gritty, and low grade. Try to use a better grade of chocolate. GIGO

 

Also, I have never made this as a full sheet pan. I wonder if it doesn't hold up better in an 8" round due to basic physics.