Daring Bakers: Chocolate Valentino & Ice Cream

It's time for another Daring Baker's Challenge! The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I followed the recipe for the flourless chocolate cake to the letter, but mine ended up like a molten chocolate lava cake. I used a combo of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate & Ghiradelli Baking Chocolate. Also, instead of vanilla ice cream, I made Cinnamon Ice Cream, adapted from a Paula Deen recipe (good, but VERY rich...a couple spoons full was enough for me. However, my husband really liked the combination, so it's all good.) :) On to the recipes:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.


Cinnamon Ice Cream
1 quart half-and-half
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 pint heavy whipping cream
2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
Up to 2 quarts milk, as needed

In a 2-quart saucepan, combine half-and-half and cinnamon sticks. Cook 20 minutes over low heat (do not boil). Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks, stir in ground cinnamon, and chill for 4 hours.

With an electric mixer at high speed, beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add condensed milk and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Add chilled half-and-half.

Pour mixture into canister of a 4 to 6-quart ice cream freezer. (Or, if your ice cream freezer is smaller, just do it in batches - I had to do 2 batches, but I didn't use any of the milk.) Add milk, if needed, to fill canister to the freezer line. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Yield: 4 to 6 quarts (for me, it was more like 2.5 quarts)