Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (65 page)

VARIATION:
I have also had Chocolate Hot Buttered Brandy made with Cognac in place of rum and it was equally wonderful.

Bonus Recipes

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE TORTE

QUEEN MOTHER’S CAKE

MUSHROOM MERINGUES

BLACK BOTTOM PIE

COFFEE BUTTERCRUNCH PIE

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

SANTA FE CHOCOLATE WAFERS

CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT-BUTTER CRESCENTS

CHOCOLATE TARTLETS

When I wrote the recipes for my dessert book, they were my favorite desserts and I thought that was it. I did not expect to write another book. And then there was a cookie book with my favorite cookies (in addition to those already in the first book). Now I just can’t complete this collection of chocolate recipes without including a few of my chocolate favorites from the other books. Here they are.

Chocolate Mousse Torte

6 TO 8
P
ORTIONS

Of the many recipes that were born in my kitchen, this was one of the most exciting because it became
The New York Times ’s
1972 Dessert of the Year.

It starts with a chocolate mousse mixture. Part of it is baked in a pie plate. When it cools, it settles down in the middle, leaving a higher rim. Then, the remaining unbaked mousse is placed over the baked mousse. And it is topped with whipped cream.

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 tablespoon dry instant coffee

¼ cup boiling water

8 eggs (graded large or extra-large), separated

⅔ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon salt

Adjust rack to the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch ovenproof glass pie plate. Dust it with fine, dry bread crumbs and set aside.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over hot water. Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and pour it over the chocolate. Cover, place over low heat, and stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove the top of the double boiler and set aside, uncovered, to cool slightly.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer beat the egg yolks at high speed for about 5 minutes until they are pale lemon-colored and thickened. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat at high speed for about 5 minutes more until very thick. Add the vanilla and chocolate, beating slowly, and scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula until smooth. Remove from the mixer.

Add the salt to the egg whites in the large bowl of the mixer. With clean beaters, beat until the whites hold a definite shape but not until they are stiff or dry.

Gradually, in two or three small additions, fold about half of the whites into the chocolate (do not be too thorough), and then fold the chocolate into the remaining whites. Fold only until no whites show.

Handling as little as possible, gently remove and set aside about 4 cups of the mousse.

Turn the balance into the pie plate; it will barely reach the top of the plate. Very gently spread it level and place in the oven to bake.

Cover the reserved mousse and refrigerate.

When the mousse has baked for 25 minutes, turn off the oven, but leave the torte in for 5 minutes more.

Then remove it from the oven and place it on a rack to cool. (The mousse will rise during baking and then, while cooling, it will settle in the center, leaving a high rim.)

When
completely
cool, remove the reserved mousse from the refrigerator. Handling as little as possible, place the refrigerated mousse in the center of the shell of baked mousse. Mound it slightly higher in the center. Handle it gently or it will lose the air that has been beaten into it.

Refrigerate for at least 2 to 3 hours, or all day if you wish.

TOPPING

1½ cups heavy cream

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

⅓ cup confectioners sugar

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip the above ingredients until they hold a shape. Spread over the unbaked part of the mousse, excluding the rim. Refrigerate until serving time.

OPTIONAL:
Coarsely grate semisweet chocolate over the top.

NOTES:
An alternate, attractive way of applying the whipped cream is to place it in a pastry bag fitted with a medium-size star-shaped tube and, as Jean Hewitt did when she prepared this torte to be photographed for The New York Times, form a lattice pattern of the cream over the top of the unbaked mousse, and a border around the edge.

To serve, place the pie plate on a folded napkin (on a platter or cake plate) to hold the plate steady when serving.

Queen Mother’s Cake

12
P
ORTIONS

Jan Smeterlin, the eminent pianist, picked up this recipe on a concert tour in Austria. He loves to cook, and when he baked this to serve at the reception following a command performance for the Queen Mother of England, she asked for the recipe. Then she served it frequently at her royal parties.

It is a single-layer, no-flour, ground-nut, chocolate torte, covered with a thin chocolate icing. It is typically European: simple, elegant, and extraordinarily delicious. The cake may be frozen before or after it is iced, but while the icing is fresh it has a beautiful shine, which becomes dull if the cake stands overnight or if it is frozen. So to enjoy this at its very best, ice the cake during the day for that night. But I know several people who always have an uniced Queen Mother’s Cake in the freezer.

6 ounces (1¼ cups) almonds, blanched or unblanched

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely cut or broken

6 ounces (1½ sticks) sweet butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

6 eggs (graded large—no larger), separated

⅛ teaspoon salt

Adjust rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9 × 2 or 3-inch spring-form pan and line the bottom with a round of baking-pan liner paper or wax paper cut to fit. Butter the paper and dust all over with fine, dry bread crumbs; invert over a piece of paper and tap lightly to shake out excess crumbs. Set the prepared pan aside.

The nuts must be ground to a very fine powder; it may be done in a food processor, a blender, or a nut grinder. They must be fine, and should resemble cornmeal. (However you grind the nuts, if they are not smooth and equally fine, or if they have become lumpy from overblending, they should be strained. Place them in a large strainer set over a large bowl and, with your fingertips, press them through the strainer.) Set the ground nuts aside.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on low heat. Cover until partially melted, then uncover and stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove the top of the double boiler and set it aside, uncovered, to cool slightly.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat at moderately high speed for about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating until thoroughly incorporated after each addition.

On low speed add the chocolate and beat only to mix. Then add the almonds and beat only to mix, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula.

Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

In the large bowl of the electric mixer add the salt to the egg whites. With clean beaters, beat only until the whites hold a definite shape but not until they are stiff or dry.

Stir a large spoonful of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture. Then gradually (in about three additions) fold in the remaining whites.

Turn the mixture into the pan. Rotate the pan a bit briskly first in one direction, then the other, to level the top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 50 minutes. (Total baking time is 1 hour and 10 minutes.) Do not overbake; the cake should remain soft and moist in the center.

(The following direction is from Mr. Smeterlin and, although I do not understand exactly why, I always do it.) Wet and slightly wring out a folded towel and place it on a smooth surface. Remove the spring form from the oven and place it directly on the wet towel. Let stand for 20 minutes. Then release and remove the sides of the spring form. Place a rack over the cake and carefully invert. Remove the bottom of the pan and the paper lining. Cover with another rack and invert again, leaving the cake right side up to cool.

The cake will be about 1 ¾ inches high. If the top is uneven (if the rim is higher) wait until the cake is completely cool and then use a long, thin, sharp knife to cut the top level.

The cake will be fragile and should be handled with care. (Chilling it briefly will make it safer to transfer to a cake plate, but then it must reach room temperature again before you ice it; if the cake is cold it will make the icing dull.)

Place four strips of wax paper around the outer edges of a cake plate. Transfer the cake to the plate, placing the cake upside down.

If you have a cake-decorating turntable or a lazy Susan, place the cake plate on it.

Now prepare the icing.

ICING FOR QUEEN MOTHER’S CAKE

½ cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons dry instant coffee

8 ounces semisweet chocolate coarsely cut or broken

Scald the cream in a medium-size heavy saucepan uncovered over moderate heat until it begins to form small bubbles around the edge or a skin on top. Add the dry instant coffee and stir briskly with a small wire whisk to dissolve. Add the chocolate and stir occasionally over heat for about 1 minute. Then remove the pan from the heat and stir with the whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a small bowl or place the bottom of the saucepan in cold water to stop the cooking.

Let the icing stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or more until it reaches room temperature and barely begins to thicken, but only slightly.

Then stir it to mix (do not beat) and pour it over the top of the cake. Use a long, narrow metal spatula to smooth the top and at the same time spread the icing so that a little of it runs down the sides (not too much on the sides—the icing on the top should be
thicker than that on the sides). With a small, narrow metal spatula smooth the sides.

Remove the four strips of wax paper by pulling each one out toward a narrow end.

Mr. Smeterlin left the top of his Queen Mother’s Cake perfectly plain, but if you wish you can place a row of twelve Chocolate Curls (see page 264) around the border, as I do.

Queen Mother’s Cake may be served just as it is (which is the way we served it for all the years I made it for my husband’s restaurants), or it may be served with whipped cream on the side.

Mushroom Meringues

24
R
ATHER
L
ARGE OR 36
M
EDIUM
M
USHROOMS

About twenty years ago when I entered an international cooking Olympics, I created this version of Mushroom Meringues. And I won first prize for originality. Since 1974, when my dessert book was published, I have seen these Mushroom Meringues for sale in stores from coast to coast. And I have seen the recipe in newspapers and magazines. I am extremely proud and delighted when I see that other people’s Mushroom Meringues look just like the ones I made for the Olympics.

They are meringue cookies, or petits fours, that look exactly like real mushrooms.

They call for patience, talent with a pastry bag, and dry atmosphere. (I should tell you, though, that although a dry atmosphere is always considered essential to the success of dry meringue, I have made these innumerable times during the past twenty years in Miami Beach, where it is almost always humid. And they are always perfect.)