Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

Now some might say that fallen chocolate cake sounds like a souffle gone terribly wrong, but they would be terribly wrong. Fallen chocolate cake is a nice fudgey cake gone terribly right. Fallen Chocolate Cake (Adapted from BonAppetit) 1/2 c butter, cut into 1" pieces 3/4 sugar, divided (plus 2T for topping and additional for pan) 10 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 2T oil 6 large eggs (4 of which are separated) 2T cocoa 1 t vanilla 1t salt Topping 1 c heavy cream 1/2 c mascarpone 3T confectioner's sugar Pomegranate seeds (optional) Lightly butter a springform pan and dust with sugar.  Tap out excess and set aside. Combine chocolate, oil, and butter in a heatproof bowl. Blast in 15 second increments in microwave until melted (or heat slowly over double-boiler). Set aside. Separate 4 of the eggs. In a bowl take the 4 yolks, cocoa, vanilla, salt, 1/4 c sugar, and the 2 remaining eggs and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk in the cho...

So onward on my quest to use up the Impastata . I was cruising around and found this on Epicurious. It used Mascarpone. The Impastata is so creamy it's like Mascarpone or Cream cheese so I gave it a try. It only used up 1 cup but it was well worth it. Strawberry Tart (Adapted from Epicurious ) Crust: 1 1/4 c flour 3T sugar 1/4 t salt 7 T butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1 egg yolk 1 t vanilla extract 3 T lemon juice (cold) zest from lemon Blend flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until it looks like corn meal. In a small bowl mix egg yolk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle over the flour mixture. Pulse until comes together. You might need to add additional lemon juice. Empty into a 9" tart pan with removable bottom. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and press dough into bottom and up sides of tart pan. Freeze for 10 minutes or until frozen. See crumbled parchment fits great into the pan Prick bottom of shell wit...

So now I had the Mascarpone cheese, what was I going to do with it. I know I could have gone with the traditional Tiramisu but I was looking for something a little different. Well Chocolate Mousse sounded like a wonderful idea to me. Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (Adapted from Epicurious) 12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 1 1/3 c heavy cream 1/3 c water 1/4 dark corn syrup 5T dark rum 1 t vanilla 1 t chocolate extract (optional) 8 oz Mascarpone 2 bananas, sliced 1/2 c strawberries, sliced Place chocolate, 1/3 c cup cream, water, and corn syrup in a saucepan.  Heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Is there a better sight than chocolate melting into cream? Let cool about 20 minutes, stir occasionally. Whisk in rum and extracts.  Whisk in Mascarpone until smooth. Beat 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Gently fold chocolate mixture into cream in two additions.  Looks like we'll need some more rum for maki...

Cheese, Cheese, Cheese - is cheese a good thing or what?  Mascarpone is a relatively easy cheese to make. Although I must admit the first time out of the box was a failure - the curds did not form.  I think I heated the heavy cream too high. But I decided to try again and YUM! is all I can say. All you need to buy is the tartaric acid.  I bought mine here . It is pretty cheap and you only use a little so it will last a long time. It says to store it in a cool dry place so I'm storing mine in the refrigerator. Macarpone 1 quart heavy cream (or half and half) 1/4 t tartaric acid In a double-boiler (don't worry if you don't have one-you can use a metal bowl placed over a pot of boiling water) heat the cream to 185 degrees. Stir occasionally-especially the sides as they tend to be hotter. Shut off heat. Add tartaric acid and gently stir for about a minute. The cream will begin to look curdled. Remove bowl from heat and let rest for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile set up ...