Posts from the “Food + Drink” Category

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

Posted on February 8th, 2012

choc-cake1

That’s what it was called on the website where I found it, foto e fornelli. I love this blog, even if I have to use Google Translate to read it.

So first I translated this recipe from Italian, then I adapted measurements from grams to cups and teaspoons using my scale. Now that I have a scale, I’d probably just use grams to bake this, but I wanted to convert it in case any of you wanted to try it. Below is the actual recipe I used, which is a bit different from the original.

The cake is super moist and dense in the middle – maybe somewhere between a cake brownie and a gooey brownie – and crisp on the top. The layers of salt are insanely good – I used Cyprus flake salt, but you can use your favorite large-flake salt here (the original recipe calls for fleur de sel). Justin thought it would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream; I thought it was perfect as is.

(Have I mentioned that Roux loves sweets?)

Happy baking!

Chocolate Cake with Cyprus Flake Salt

  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon Cyprus flake salt (or your favorite large-flake salt)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 9×9-inch baking pan with cooking spray, and line with parchment paper. Coat the paper layer with cooking spray as well.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler, in the microwave, or very carefully on the stove. Mix well – the mixture should be smooth. Let cool a bit.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale yellow. Add a small amount of the chocolate mixture and beat well. Slowly add the remaining chocolate mixture while beating.

Sift the flour and baking powder slowly into the mixture and beat until completely smooth.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan; sprinkle with half of the salt. Top with the remaining batter and sprinkle the remaining salt over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Makes 9 – 12 servings (depending on how much you like chocolate).

Adapted and translated from foto e fornelli.

Friday

Posted on January 3rd, 2012

Internets! I hope you all had wonderful holidays with lots of food and rest. Ours were good – some travel, some debauchery, some sloth. I’ve been feeling pressured to write a year-end post, or a year-beginning post, and so I’ve decided to just skip that. Instead, here’s daily eats that I forgot to post from last Friday. Breakfast: a mocha made with Casa Brasil coffee brewed in the Chemex, plus a few squares of Mast Brothers chocolate, some soy milk, and some sugar. Delectable. Lunch: I met my friend N. at Kome. We had sushi that I gobbled down so quickly, I forgot to photograph it. I had salmon belly, monkfish liver and bonito, fresh water eel and salt water eel. I tried the…

More things from NYC

Posted on December 28th, 2011

Aside from all our souvenirs, we brought back this song, which we heard at Dram Bar… And this cocktail recipe, also from Dram Bar. Happy happy! The Greenpoint (created at Milk & Honey, but served to us at Dram Bar) 2 ounces rye whiskey 1/2 ounce yellow Chartreuse 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth 1 dash Angostura bitters 1 dash orange bitters Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with good maraschino cherries, or a lemon zest twist. Makes 1 cocktail.  

NYC Food, Part 2

Posted on December 22nd, 2011

Here’s part two of our NYC eats! The Breslin The Breslin was conveniently located off the lobby of our hotel, so we decided to hang out for dinner one night. We found some seats in the bar and enjoyed French 75s and prosecco cocktails with blood orange liqueur and hibiscus syrup. The bar and the restaurant were definite hot-spots, full of young, hip New Yorkers and hotel guests dressed to the nines. We started off with salt and cracked pepper crisps, which were just well-seasoned potato chips. We also had a crazy crisp bread with lardo to spread on top, which was awesome. But the best dish was the curried mussels with chickpeas, cilantro, and flatbread. The broth was stellar, the mussels plump, the…