[Sca-cooks] Flourless chocolate cake, was History -- pecan pie recipe

Craig Daniel teucer at pobox.com
Fri Nov 20 12:09:18 PST 2009


On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 2:46 PM,  <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I wrote:
>>
>>  Well, sometimes i see them as flourless chocolate cakes. My mother made
>> one
>>  in a jelly roll pan, dusted it with powdered sugar, then spread homemade
>>  whipped cream on it and rolled it up, then covered the outside with a
>>  wonderful homemade dark fudgey chocolate icing. This was only for
>> holidays -
>>  Thanksgiving and Christmas... I've found recipes just like it on Jewish
>>  cooking websites.
>
> Jaume wrote:
>>
>>  Weird - I'm used to seeing them un-iced, sometimes dusted with powdered
>> sugar.
>
> I gave specific details of one kind my mother made and that i find on many
> Jewish cooking web sites. The ingredients in the family are very much like
> the one that Crixa makes, but theirs is deep and served in squares, whereas
> my mother made hers thinner, then prepared as i described
>
> There's another kind that is dense and gummy that i've had in restaurants,
> which is sort of like a compacted deflated mousse, often with ground nuts in
> it. This generally goes down the hatch like a cannonball, although often a
> delicious one.
>
> I prefer the kind that Crixa makes and my mother made - light and airy, yet
> with very intense and rich flavor.

Hm. It seems to me that the lack of a clear name other than "flourless
chocolate cake" (which is kind of broad) masks the fact that there
seem to be at least two and quite possibly several distinct desserts
here.

The one I'm most accustomed to is very dense, and I wouldn't describe
it as "airy" at all. The flavor is usually intensely chocolate (much
more so than any normal cake), and the slices are generally quite
small owing to the richness of the dessert. It's usually served
un-iced, though I've encountered a restaurant version that had a thin
layer of tempered chocolate covering the exterior. The texture is hard
to compare to much else - in some ways it's similar to both ganache
and cheesecake, though it's not really like either. I think of it as a
cake in name only, but certainly something very good.

It sounds like yours is significantly closer to a normal cake in
texture, which would also explain the tendency to ice it. It also
sounds absolutely delicious and I would dearly love a recipe. Having a
celiac mother, more possible holiday baking projects that she could
help eat are always welcome.

 - Jaume



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