Time for the February Daring Bakers 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. 
This was such a neat recipe to try, I have never made a flourless cake before and was prepared not to like the end result, but in the end I really enjoyed it! The cake was so delicate and light, it almost melted in your mouth even though it looked like a dense brownie type cake, looks can be deceiving! I halved the recipe and made six mini heart cakes in a silicone pan. I made Oreo Ice Cream to serve the cakes with, what a fun childhood inspired treat. I am usually one to try to make everything homemade, at least once. We rarely buy things that I can make at home (certain pastas, breads, cookies, soups, etc.) but one thing I cannot make at home is an Oreo cookie, I know there are some recipes out there to make your own, but I think Oreos are a special treat best left to the mass manufacturers.
Chocolate Valentino (flourless chocolate cake)
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.
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.
I slightly modified one of the suggested ice cream recipes for this month;
Wendy's Ice Cream -- Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe
2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla
Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too).Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.
Changes I made were to use two cups of cream and one cup of skim milk, powdered sugar, and to add in 10 chopped double stuff oreos. I really liked the suggestion of mixing the cream sugar mixture in a pitcher before pouring into the ice cream maker. It made getting the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker extra easy!
Changes I made were to use two cups of cream and one cup of skim milk, powdered sugar, and to add in 10 chopped double stuff oreos. I really liked the suggestion of mixing the cream sugar mixture in a pitcher before pouring into the ice cream maker. It made getting the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker extra easy!
Thank you to Wendy and Dharm for hosting this challenge :)