CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. —
February is known all over the world as a month of sweetness, love and all other related fuzzy feelings. In the spirit of the warm vibes of the month, I enlisted Jesse MacDonald, the executive chef of Rodd Crowbush, located in Morell, to share his story and a recipe perfect for sharing with the people who matter most in our lives.
The son of a lobster fishing family, he learned from an early age the importance of supporting the community you belong to.
“Supporting local is so important to me from my chefs as it allows the opportunity to support the hard-working fishers and farmers found all across Prince Edward Island. We have a unique combination of industries that are very different from one another here on P.E.I. — fishing, farming and tourism. However, the opportunity that all three of these industries have to work together for the benefit of everyone on the Island is, in my opinion, only beginning to be realized.”
For this chef, working in other provinces across,as well as abroad, has only deepened his love for the Island. While MacDonald honed his craft in his education outside of his home province, he developed his palette in pairing flavours with chocolate, citing cardamom, rose and bacon as some of the ultimate in chocolate partnerships.
Chocolate has been holding our senses joyous captive since the days of the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Chocolate in its early inceptions was drunk by warriors pre-battle and today we find romantic courage through making gifts of the far sweeter iteration of this ancient aphrodisiac.
MacDonald believes chocolate is so beloved because of “the complexity and versatility of chocolate. Ingredients that are overly sweet or with a lot of added sugar can sometimes lack depth or only have a single-note of flavour, but with chocolate that is certainly not the case.”
This recipe is best enjoyed warm very shortly after it comes out of the oven and is gluten-free by design, allowing for the most decadent molten middle that can be savoured with as much leisure or haste as you desire.
Yield: 15-20 cakes
Individual Flourless Double Chocolate Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, plus 2 small cubes for buttering muffin tins
1 lb. dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 cups white sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus 2 tbsp. for dusting muffin tins.
1/2 tsp salt
6 lg. eggs, yolks separated from whites
1) Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease muffin tins with cubes of butter as needed. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a double boiler; stirring frequently until smooth.
2) Gently stir in the sugar, cocoa powder and salt with wooden spoon until all of the lumps are gone. Remove from the heat and let cool for 2-3 minutes.
3) Beat the egg whites in bowl or mixer until they reach stiff peaks.
4) Stir the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture.
5) Stir in about 1/3rd of the whipped egg whites into chocolate mixture. Than scrape the chocolate mixture into the remaining whipped egg whites and gently fold until combined.
6) Dust greased muffin tins with 2 tbsp. of cocoa powder as needed.
7) Pour into the prepared tins and bake 17-22 minutes or until batter in middle of cakes has set.
8) Let cool in the tins, 2-3 minutes, and then on a wire rack (the cake will deflate slightly).
9) Once cakes are cooled and on wire rack, place rack on sheet pan or other surface to catch chocolate drippings and pour 1-2 oz of chocolate ganache on each individual cake.
For Chocolate Ganache
8 oz dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
Bring cream and baileys to hard simmer. Pour hot liquid into chop chocolate and mix until smooth. Be sure to use ganache when still warm.
Chef Ilona Daniel's food column, Food Seductress, runs on the last Thursday of each month. She welcomes comments from readers by email at [email protected] or at Twitter.com/chef_ilona.
