Chocolate Mousse Cake

 
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My computer was getting an OS update and I had to re-set up a lot of things on it.

This cake is not only 100% flour free, but one of the lightest and fluffiest chocolate cakes you'll ever eat. The version I made is a chocolate cake with coffee buttercream filling and chocolate ganache on the outside, but the possibilities are almost endless for the variations you could make with this cake. And if you feel uncomfortable with layer cakes, you could 1/2 the recipe and make one layer with frosting just on the outside. This isn't the prettiest cake, but it tastes amazing.

The buttercream pictured is actually Swiss meringue buttercream, not the French buttercream I'm including in this recipe. But since the Swiss is trickier to work with (it became slightly separated after having put it in the fridge then trying to remix it so that it would soften, even though it turned out perfectly at first) I think that the French would be easier when you're starting out. Regular American buttercreams are a no-go because they always contain confectioner's (powdered) sugar which contains the slightest bit of corn starch.

I made a 6 inch (in diameter) cake comprised of three layers of cake. I ended up having some batter left over which I made into cake pops. (I'll show you how to do some starch free cake pops soon!) But you could make this into an 8 inch cake with just two layers and it would be the perfect amount of batter.

Chocolate Mousse Cake
serves 8-10
10 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
8 eggs, separated --  (make sure the whites are completely free of yolks or oil, or they won't fluff up correctly -- also make sure that the whites are at room temperature before you mix them, they'll form stiffer peaks that way)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract

for the chocolate ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

for the Coffee French Buttercream:
makes 2 cups
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp instant espresso dissolved in 1 Tbsp warm water
pinch salt
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, each stick cut into quarters

For the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter three 6-inch cake pans (or two 8-inch cake pans) and line the bases with buttered parchment paper rounds (cut out to fit each pan).

{lined cake pans}

2.  In a saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter (I would put the butter in the pan first to protect the chocolate from direct heat) over low heat until smooth, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and whisk in the egg yolks until completely blended. Beat in the vanilla extract and pour into a large bowl. Set aside, stirring occasionally.

3. In a clean, grease-free bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites slowly until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and increase the speed and continue beating until they form soft peaks, then stiffer peaks that just flop over a little at the top. Have patience, this will take 5-10 minutes.

{stiff peaks}

4. Stir a large spoonful of white into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remaining white until they're just combined. Don't overmix, or the whites will fall.

5. Divide batter between cake pans, smoothing the tops evenly and tapping the sides gently to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed. The cakes will fall slightly when you take them out of the oven. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then use a knife to loosen the sides and invert the cakes onto the rack and remove the papers.

6. When completely cooled to room temperature, wrap up each cake layer in saran wrap and put into the fridge. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before you assemble your cake.

For the Coffee French Buttercream:

1. Combine the eggs, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water (but don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water, this is called a double boiler). Whisking gently but constantly, heat the mixture until it's thin and foamy and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

2. Remove the bowl from the water and beat the egg mixture at medium-high speed until light, airy and cooled to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, 1 piece at a time (it may look curdled halfway through, but it will smooth out with additional butter and mixing). After you've added all the butter, add in your dissolved coffee. After all the butter and coffee is added, increase the speed to high and beat 1 minutes, until light, fluffy and thoroughly combined. The buttercream can be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

For the Chocolate Ganache:

1. Bring the cream to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add all the chocolate at once, stirring until melted and smooth. Stir in the vanilla and beat in the softened butter. Set aside for about 5 minutes before you use it so that it can thicken slightly. Ganache should coat the back of a spoon in a thick, smooth layer.

To assemble the cake:
Unwrap the cake layers and place one on a large flat plate. Using a piping or a spatula, dollop on the buttercream and spread it into a smooth layer, making sure that you put it over the edge, so that it squishes out a little between cake layers. Add your second layer of cake and repeat with the buttercream. Add your third cake layer and push down to flattened the cake, making sure that the buttercream is evenly spread out underneath the layers. Pour your chocolate ganache on top of the cake, letting it run down the sides and using your spatula to spread evenly over the sides of the cake. Then put the cake back into the fridge to set.

{hell yeah, chocolate cake!}

--Kara

Avgolemono: Greek Egg-Lemon Soup

 This soup is so light and tasty, you'll get hooked. Don't be deterred by the egg in this soup, it's used only as a thickener and doesn't actually coagulate.

A couple of months ago, one of my besties, Ashlee, came to visit. (Did I mention she's awesome?) On one of the days she was here, we were trying to decide where to eat lunch. Back in college, she studied abroad in Greece but she hadn't had Greek food in awhile, so we settled on going to a Greek restaurant in the city. I let her do the choosing (since I know very little about Greek food), and we ended up sharing quite a few foods that I had never had, one of which was this delicious egg-lemon soup that I've been wanting to re-create at home ever since. This soup is a staple in Greece, but the restaurant we were eating at was kind of a trendy place, so they fancied the soup up a little. I found a recipe for avgolemono in Cooks Illustrated: The Best International Recipe, replaced the rice/orzo with cauliflower to make it starch free and added a few things based on the soup at the restaurant.

This soup is pretty simple to make and is perfect as an appetizer, because it's so light and lemony. When buying chicken stock, you have to be careful that it doesn't contain starch; many contain carrots, which are starchy (as are all root vegetables). I buy the low-sodium chicken stock from Trader Joe's but I also make my own chicken stock when I can.

Avgolemono
serves 6-8
2 quarts low-sodium chicken stock (or you could substitute vegetable if you're a veggie)
2 cups cauliflower rice (directions for this are outlined below)
12 (4-inch long) strips zest from 2 lemons
2 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup juice from 2 lemons
a head of romaine lettuce, chopped
optional: 1 cup cooked chicken, cut into tiny strips
1 scallion, sliced thin
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves

{cauliflower rice}

 
1. Put 3-4 cups roughly chopped cauliflower pieces into a food processor or blender. Pulse until the cauliflower resembles grains of rice.

2. Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the cauliflower rice, lemon zest, cloves, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the "rice" is tender, 16-20 minutes.

3. Remove and discard the bay leaves, cloves, and lemon zest. Return the broth to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Whisk the whole eggs, yolks, and lemon juice together in a medium bowl until combined.

4. Ladle about 2 cups of the hot broth into the bowl with the eggs and slowly whisk it into the eggs to temper, then slowly whisk the egg mixture back into the soup. Continue to cook the soup over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, 4-5 minutes. Don't let the soup simmer or boil, to make sure that the eggs don't coagulate.

5. Put 1/2-3/4 cup chopped romaine (and the chicken, if you're having it: 1/4 cup in each bowl) in each bowl and divide up the soup between bowls. Sprinkle with scallions and mint and serve immediately.

{so tasty!}

Homemade Pesto & Baked Pesto Chicken

{baked pesto chicken and kale}

For most of my life, I thought I didn't like pesto, but I think I was comparing store-bought to home made. And man, does it make a difference if you're eating it home made. Pesto is one of the quickest and tastiest sauces around and I like that it's so versatile. You can use it with baked chicken, zucchini noodles, starch free bread, on fish, etc. And you can change up the herbs and nuts depending on what you have available. I like to use walnuts, but almonds will work just fine. (P.S. I'll tell you about making kale another day.)

Pesto
makes about 1 1/2 cups
2 cups fresh basil or cilantro leaves (packed into a measuring cup)
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts or almonds
3/4 cup coarsely grated/shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 a lemon's worth of freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Wash basil/cilantro leaves if needed and dry. Put basil leaves and sliced garlic into food processor (or a blender if you don't have one) that's been fitted with the steel blade and process until basil and garlic is finely chopped, adding oil through the feed tube as you mix. You're going to have to take off the lid and scrape the sides with a rubber scraper periodically to make sure it all gets mixed.

{processing the basil & garlic}

2. Add walnuts, Parmesan cheese, and lemon juice to the chopped basil mixture and process 1-2 minutes more, until the pesto is mostly pureed and well mixed. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and pulse a few times more.

3. Store any leftover pesto in the refrigerator, where it will keep for more than a week. Pesto can also be frozen.

Baked Pesto Chicken
makes 4 servings
1 lb. chicken (I used boneless thighs, but breasts work well too)
salt and black pepper
1 cup pesto
4 oz. mozzarella cheese (I buy mozz. in a block because shredded cheeses usually have added starches to keep it from clumping)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. 

2. Spray a 9" x 12" baking dish with non-stick spray, then spread 1/2 of the pesto over the bottom of the dish. Lay chicken pieces over the pesto, then spread the rest of the pesto over the chicken, making sure to cover all of the pieces.

{pre-baking chicken + pesto}

3. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil (or use a baking dish with a tight-fitting lid) and bake the chicken for 25-30 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. But don't cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.

4. When the chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and spread the chicken with mozzarella cheese slices. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 -10 minutes more, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. (If your broiler is separate from the oven, start preheating it when you take the chicken out.) After I melted the cheese for 5 minutes I switched my oven to broil and broiled for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.

{ready to eat}

Almond Flour Pancakes

 

A couple of years ago when Roi first made the jump to a completely starch free diet, we both thought that pancakes would be something he'd have to give up forever. But last year while I was trolling the web, I came across some Paleo recipes that used almond flour and eggs to make pancakes that have the same taste and consistency we were used to in traditional pancakes. I made a few tweaks because the Paleo diet isn't synonymous with a starch free diet and here we are! In delicious pancake land.

Almond Flour Pancakes

serves 2 ~ about 3 medium pancakes each

1/2 cup almond meal/almond flour (it's the same thing, I buy mine from Trader Joe's)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

butter for frying

Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together. Whisk in the cream and vanilla, then the eggs. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add a little butter to the pan. These pancakes will spread, so I usually like to use a small egg-frying pan and only 1/4-1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until the pancake seems set and you can see little bubbles all over the top, then flip. Make sure both sides are golden brown and the pancake is cooked through. Mix the batter in between pancakes because it will separate slightly.

Having pancakes with sliced strawberries and whipped cream is my favorite way, but you can serve these however you'd serve regular pancakes. In the past, I have made these with blueberries, but the pancakes never stay together as well when the berries are mixed into the batter, so I usually serve the fruit on top after the pancakes are cooked. Roi likes them with with butter in between each layer and with a lot of maple syrup (Real maple syrup is starch free! Hooray! I don't know about the fake stuff though.) 

To make 2-3 servings of whipped cream, put 1/3 cup cold heavy whipping cream into a bowl and mix (I use an electric hand mixer) until thick. Then add a teaspoon of sugar and whip until stiff peaks form and it looks like whipped cream should. Then just dollop as much as you want on top of your pancakes. (I used a piping bag because I like to get fancy.)

Celebrating Pi(e) Day with Key Lime Mousse Pie

This pie is so good! It's sort of a cheesecake, key lime pie, ice cream pie and white chocolate cream pie wrapped into one. When we were in Miami a few weeks ago visiting family, I had the t.v. turned on to The Food Network a lot while we were lounging (we don't have t.v. at home besides the internet and netflix, so it was kind of a treat) and saw a lot of Paula Deen's shows. Later when I was looking up a recipe that I saw on her show for home-made lollipops (I'll show you how to make those later, promise!) I came across this recipe and knew I had to try it, because the filling was totally starch free and looked delicious. I decided to make it for Pi(e) Day and was not disappointed.

To make it starch free, I made a pie shell out of almond meal instead of her graham cracker crust. I also halved Paula's recipe because hers looked enormous, and I didn't need to feed a million people. And really, I just wanted it too look like a pie and not a cheesecake. (Even with halving the recipe, I still had a little extra filling. I just put it in a little container in the freezer to have separately.) If you live near a Trader Joe's, their almond meal works perfectly for this (and a lot of other recipes) and is much less expensive than other brands of almond flour that I've seen.

Ingredients:
makes 1 standard pie (8-10 inches)
for the pie shell:
3 cups almond meal/almond flour
4 ounces unsalted butter
(a little less than) 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (not baking powder-that's starchy)
1/8-1/4 cup cold water as needed
for the pie filling:
3 tablespoons fresh key lime juice
1/2 envelope of unflavored gelatin (a little more than 1/2 ounce)
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
5 ounces white chocolate, chopped or as chips
12 ounces (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tablespoon lime zest

To make the crust:
1. Combine the almond meal with the baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the butter and some water, but don't add too much water! You just need enough to moisten the dough so that you can mix it.

2. Knead to combine, and don't worry if some of the butter still shows through the dough. Form the dough into a flat disk, cover completely with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Remove from the fridge and place between 2 sheets of baking paper. Roll the dough out to a round disk a little larger than the pie dish. Remove the top sheet and invert the shell onto the pie dish. With your hands, mold the dough to fit the pie dish, making the edges a little thicker than the bottom. Put into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust has browned and is firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

{rolling out the dough}

{baked crust, cooling}

To make the filling:
1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice. Whisk in the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the white chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.

2. Using an electric mixer, blend together the softened cream cheese, sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl, until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture into cream cheese mixture.

3. Using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 3/4 cup heavy cream in a small bowl, until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the white chocolate mixture and pour into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.

4. Remove from the freezer and cut into wedges with a knife that has been dipped into hot water. Serve immediately and store the extras in the freezer.

{juicing the limes}

{cream cheese and white chocolate mixture}

{whipped cream, soft peaks}

{folding cream cheese mixture and whipped cream}

{filled pie, before freezer}

{yum!}

Greek Cucumber Salad

I know how much you like salads, so here's another one. I like to make this salad when I don't have that much time to make dinner and I usually have the ingredients on hand because Greek salad is one of my favorites. It only takes about 10 minutes total to chop everything up, make the dressing and toss it all in a bowl. And if you don't have exact amounts, that's okay. I never measure out amounts for salads like this, I usually just throw what I have into a bowl and mix it up.

Greek Cucumber Salad
serves 2-3
salad:
1 large cucumber, quartered and sliced (I usually half-peel it too)
1 large tomato, chopped
a handful of black olives (you can use Kalamata olives obviously, I just use black because they're cheaper)
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
~1/2 cup feta*, crumbled (use more or less depending on how much you love feta, I tend to use a lot)
dressing:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
oregano

Throw all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl and mix it up! I usually just put the dressing in an old jam jar with a tight-fitting lid. First add vinegar, then oil and throw in the spices to taste. Then shake it up! Divide the salad among individual bowls and add dressing. So good!

*A note about buying feta. If you need it to be starch free, don't buy it already crumbled because they always add a starch to keep it from sticking together. You don't have to buy expensive feta, just make sure it's in a block and check the ingredients to be sure.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

This salad is so good! You'll want to make it twice in the same week, which we definitely did. In my book, any recipe that combines a little bit of bacon with vegetables is good because it gets Roi to eat more vegetables. Sometimes I feel like I'm catering towards a little kid and not my husband. Anyway, try it. You won't be sorry.

This recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated cookbook Perfect Vegetables. The salad comes together quickly, so you'll need to have all the ingredients cut and ready before you start. And when you add the vinegar mixture to the pan, step away from the stove-top because the fumes will be strong!

Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Serves 4-6
6 ounces baby spinach (about 8 cups)
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch salt
10 ounces (about 8 slices) thick-cut bacon
1/2 medium red onion, chopped medium (about 1/2 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered lengthwise

1. Put the spinach in a large bowl. Stir the vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves then set aside.

2. Fry the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, flipping occasionally, until crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. When cool enough, break up into 1/2 inch pieces. Pour the bacon grease into a heatproof bowl and return 3 tablespoons of the fat to the skillet. Add the onion to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the vinegar mixture and remove the skillet from the heat. Working quickly, scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon to the loosen the browned bits.

3. Pour the hot dressing over the spinach, add the bacon, and toss gently until the spinach is slightly wilted. Divide the salad among individual plates, arrange the egg quarters over each, and serve immediately.