Bête Noire (Flourless Chocolate Cake)

I first found a Bête Noire recipe on a Williams-Sonoma Guide to Good Cooking CD-ROM which, since I moved to OS X, I can no longer use. I've since found a nearly identical version posted on recipesource.com.

Ingredients

• 8 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 lb. (1 cup, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 4 pieces
• 5 extra-large eggs at room temperature

Preparation

First, don't forget to have the eggs and butter at room temperature. I always find myself trying to warm up frozen butter or chilly eggs at the last minute.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. All my sources say to put the rack in the center of the oven, but I've never remembered to do so, and it's turned out OK.

Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the inside of a 9-inch cake pan (not one of those spring-loaded ones that pops apart), butter the inside of the pan liberally, and place the paper on the bottom. Again, everyone says to butter the paper, and maybe I'll remember to do it next time.

Set the cake pan into another baking pan that's large enough so that the sides don't touch, and deep enough to hold 1/2 inch of water. I use a square glass lasagna-type pan.

Chop all the chocolate into fine pieces and set it aside. I like using a sharp chef's knife to shave off slivers and matchsticks, then I go back and give those a quick chopping to break them up.

Put the 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of the sugar (only 1 cup — the other 1/3 cup of sugar gets mixed with the eggs) in a heavy saucepan (1-1/2 or 2 quart) and put it on a high heat. Bring it to a rolling boil, stirring frequently. (I like to use a narrow, stiff whisk for all these stirring operations.)

As soon as the sugar has completely dissolved, remove the pan from the heat (so you don't lose too much water), add the chocolate pieces, and stir until they're completely melted. Then add the butter, piece by piece, stirring to melt it completely, and set the pan aside.

Next, you'll need to beat the eggs and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar together. Recipesource.com says that using an electric mixer to triple the mixture's volume will give you a crunchy crust, but I've never done it that way.

I prefer to use a hand whisk, and just beat them until they're slightly thickened, which gives a nice, moist, soft-surfaced cake.

(If your water heater isn't set too high, this might be a good time to start heating some water to put into the outer baking pan.)

Once you've got the eggs and sugar whipped into submission, gently fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs with a rubber spatula. Keep folding until it's well-combined, and stop as soon as it has a uniform color.

Pour and scrape the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Pour hot water into the outer pan until it comes about 1/2 inch up the side of the cake pan, and carefully move the whole affair into the oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top looks dry, but not firm (yeah, I'm not sure exactly what that means, either, but it's what Williams-Sonoma recommends).

Recipesource.com says to let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before running a sharp knife around the sides to release the cake. I've always followed my first recipe's instructions, and removed it from the pan immediately, which might be why I often have part of a side collapse.

At any rate, to get it out of the pan, cover the top with plastic wrap, set an inverted plate or the bottom of a springform cake pan on top of that, and flip the whole pan over, letting the cake slip out onto the plate.

Carefully peel the parchment paper off the cake, then invert a serving plate over the cake and flip the plate-cake-plate sandwich over again, so the serving plate is on the bottom. Lift the temporary plate off and gently remove the plastic wrap.

Let it cool for at least an hour, then put a little powdered sugar into a sieve and dust the top. Add orange zest strips if you want to get fancy. Cut with a slender, sharp knife; wider utensils tend to make the cake pull off and get stuck to their sides.

Raspberry Purée

I like serving the cake slices in a little puddle of raspberry purée, with some real whipped cream on top. The sauce (also from Williams-Sonoma) is dead easy.

Put 10-12 oz. of fresh or thawed, unsweetened raspberries into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add 1/2 cup superfine sugar and 1/4 cup framboise or other raspberry-flavored liqueur. (The framboise is optional, but if you've got it, I'd recommend adding it.)

Purée until smooth. I like the seeds, but if you want seedless sauce, try running it through a sieve afterwards.

The sauce is supposed to keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, and maybe 6 months in the freezer. It's very good on ice cream, as well!