What, no brownies?

TF-ers, I must apologize.  First, I string you along with the promise that I'm going to bring you an entire series of blogs about brownies, one of my cooking obsessions.  Then I fail to follow up on my first (admittedly, great) brownie recipe.  And, now, I am going to zig zag in a totally different direction, by offering, instead, a second flourless chocolate cake recipe.  Don't despair.  I will return to the brownie theme eventually.  

But, first, a recipe for a cake that I baked today in honor of two of my very favorite weekend guests (you know who you are).  Let me preface the recipe by pointing out that flourless chocolate cakes potentially have three really strong advantages.  They're the perfect, non-matzoh oriented dessert for Passover dinners (this is a huge advantage, actually).  Also, these cakes are relatively quick to bake, since you don't need to worry about icing.  And, as may go without saying, the best of these recipes are very very good.

This one appeared in Cuisine At Home, which I must confess, is a magazine whose subscription I have allowed to slide.  That might have been a mistake.  It's a deceptively low-key magazine.  But I bake this cake with some regularity -- compare that to some of the cookbooks that I practically sleep with, which look great but have yet to yield a single dish that I've actually prepared.

This is called Nick Malgieri's Flourless Chocolate Cake.  No, I don't know who that is.  I'm one of those annoying people who tear parts of pages out of magazines, so that I keep the recipe but none of the larger context.    I apologize.  

Nick doesn't like to list the ingredients at the beginning of the recipe, so I'm not going to do that either.  More apologies.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees; prepare an 8 inch round pan by buttering it.  Then cut a piece of parchment or waxed paper to fit on top of this, and then butter that.  This is a good idea, so don't skip it (normally I go for waxed paper).

Bring to a boil:  1/3 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar; stir to dissolve. Remove from heat.  Then add:  1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces (however many you have the patience to cut); also add 12 oz. semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped into pieces (I usually go for all bittersweet, or a mixture of both).  Stir until smooth.  Whisk in 6 eggs, one at a time.  Nick adds 1/3 cup orange liqueur, such as Cointreau (to be honest, I omit this because I haven't had any Cointreau in the house for a really long time).    Pour batter into prepared pan; place this pan in a roasting pan, then add warm water to the roasting pan.  Don't spill the water on the batter. This is very important.  Don't slosh it all around as you bring the roasting pan to the oven.  

Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes.  Cool, unmold it. I usually sprinkle confectioners sugar on top.  This is good served with strawberries and fresh whipped cream.