An update on the status of the Gâteau de Zoë... We attempted Pierre's recipe this weekend and admit that it was a helluva lot better than the one we made, pulling guesses out of thin air, last weekend.
Once again, we served it to people who were at that original, unforgettable meal in Paris last month, and they hurrah'd and huzzah'd at how delicious and spot-on it was. After they left, as Maxwell was digging into his second piece, he said to me "Sweetie, it really is quite good, but if you want to know what I really think, it's not quite there yet."
I just love when he eggs me on.
Here's the recipe, as written by Pierre. Use the best chocolate possible, strong espresso, and beat those "egg yellows" (yolks) with the sugar for longer than you think.
I too attempted the cake this weekend and while I was very impressed with the rich chocolate taste, it ended up being a bit "dry" as someone pointed out on their way to adding another generous tablespoon of the cardamom-scented cream that I made as an accompaniment (Bon Appetit February 2006).
I loved the instructions to turn the oven as hot as possible as soon as possible, which I followed and boy, did I ever beat those egg yolks with that sugar. I used Giardelli unsweetened chocolate - was that my error (not enough butterfat)? I don't know.
But that "dry" comment really stuck in my craw.
Have your eggs at room temp. And do you have an oven thermometer? Valhrona is vastly superior chocolate--Giadelli isn't really very good. And use bittersweet, not unsweetened. And Plugra is my choice for butter.
i wonder if the difference is due to the quality of the butter and eggs. even if your dairy is farm-fresh, i would imagine the difference in the feed would change the flavor a bit.
liz, excellent point, esp.butter & cream.
(looks great from photo!)
I'm following this story very closely, because, let's face it... a good chocolate cake is the undisputed King of all cakes, if I steal a Batali quote usually reserved for Parmigiano Reggiano (I bought a hunk of this cheese yesterday at fairway, just because I had a hankering).
By the way, have you ever tried Citarella's flourless chocolate cake? Holy Mother of God. Talk about good.
However, I have to say I'm a pure vanilla kind of guy... For dessert, I truly love a fresh juicy pear, poached in a simple syrup with vanilla bean and eau-de-vie poire williams. And a scoop of excellent vanilla ice cream. And some tart raspberry sauce, if I have any.
But Chocolate cake is good too.
I wonder if this cake needs some real vanilla bean???
Good luck with further experiments on that cake!!!
Looks good. Hope you drop some measurements when you nail it.
And I, like you, love it when someone goes and gives the straight truth to keep you moving towards the goal. So few people are willing to do that these days.
Me three on the difference in ingredients . . .
Different chocolates certainly make small differences in the molten babycakes I've made several times since that Nigella article in the NYT. The Ghiardelli was not as spectacular as the Sharffen Berger. But it wasn't bad either...
There's a rather nice petit cookbook,
written by a former writer at Elle I think,
about making French patisserie in America.
She worked with French chefs and American butter
and flour to get the translations figured out.
I'll check out the name on the shelf at home . . .
I made a chocolate pot de creme from the Balthazar cookbook this weekend and used a combination of Valrhona and Sharffen Berger (70%) and it was sort of amazing.
Trader Joes always has a really interesting selection of dark chocolate bars that are great to cook with. Or you can just keep them in the fridge and have a square every night like I do.
sarah, it may be because there wasn't enough sugar...you know how bitter things can sometimes seem to suck all the moisture out of your mouth? so maybe just a bit more sugar will do the trick.
also, i am wondering if a tiny bit of salt wouldn't help...
Unsweetened chocolate has a lot less cocoa butter in it then bittersweet, doesn't it? That would make it too dry.
With these sorts of cakes, I think that it's very easy to overbake them and you have to pull them out before you think they're done.
You might find out if the butter was cultured or not, that makes a big difference in taste, and also as others noted, the quality of the eggs will effect taste and emulsion power. You want ones with yolks that are nearly orange, and so thick that they are hard to break apart. You want them to be around 25 C or so when you beat them, because they go into emulsion better when they are warm. You might also ask what sort of flour was used, it may have been a lower protein flour then the one you're using.
Lastly, one of the wonderful things about food is that it's impermanent. Sometimes emotion and mood can effect what you taste, and you'll never recreate that exact same dish, since you can't create the exact same circumstance.
regards,
trillium
Don't forget Mars was recently in retrograde, so that could be screwing everything up as well.
:O-)
hah!
I want to make this cake for Passover, but is it only good right out of the oven? Because I will have to make it tomorrow night and we won't eat it until Weds night.
Paul - Hah! too.
Abby,
I definitely ate some the next day - not as fresh, but still good.
Hmmm...I'm still not sure if I'm going to do it or not. I guess I can just make the whipped cream when I get there. I doubt it will survive 2.5 hours in the car...
SaraKate -
Can you annotate the recipe based on any modifications you've made in your attempts to recreate?
Took a stab at the cake last night (and forked another slice a moment ago) - delicious. I do think we might have underbeat our eggs, as they never becaome white or even really white-ish... until we added some more sugar (about a cup in total). A very delicious cake and very moist, even after leaving uncovered for longer than I should have. Ooops!