Chocolate Steamed Pudding with Chocolate Rose Leaves and Vanilla Cognac Creme Fraiche

This was the dessert I made on Sunday for the luncheon we were invited to. Looking at the picture now it doesn't seem like this dessert was really "All that" but it was in fact a lot of work. That's not a complaint in any way. I was the one who made it more work than it really needed to be, but adding my own touches with the creme fraiche and the chocolate leaves made it more unique. The challenge of making the chocolate rose leaves AND homemade creme fraiche was a lot of fun and I really learned something from it too, so my efforts were not wasted. The final garnish with the roses made for a pretty presentation that spoke of warmer weather and longer less dreary days to come. Sure enough we had fabulous Spring-like weather on Sunday, and believe me when I tell you it was REALLY needed around here. Yeah Deb, like the weather was YOUR doing!

The recipe came from my copy of Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery. My reason for choosing this particular recipe was the fact that it required the use of a steamed pudding mold or at least a set-up that would allow a person to steam the cake in the oven or on the stove. I recently purchased a steamed pudding mold and have been wanting to use it again since the day I made the Steamed Bread Pudding with Balsamic Mango~Berry Reduction. I'm not quite sure what my fascination is with these molds but using them to make cakes and puddings are a hell of a lot of fun.

I guess I should begin by saying that between the time it took to figure out and make the chocolate leaves... added with the break I took to watch a movie and goof off with the cats after said movie, I didn't begin making the cake until well after midnight on Saturday. That meant trying to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn't disturb my neighbors and of course Tom when he eventually went to bed. I almost managed to do it too, but more on that later. SO! To start I buttered and then dusted the pudding mold with cocoa powder as per Nancy Silverton's instructions, then set it aside. I got out my stock pot, placed a small steamer insert inside it, (this allows the mold to sit in the pot and still have water flow under it, as well as keep the mold from scratching up your pot) and set that aside too.

The first part of the recipe called for a "Fudge Swirl" so in a medium saucepan I combined water, corn syrup, sugar, cocoa powder and espresso powder (posing here with Cognac) and brought that to a boil. Just when it started to boil I added 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (that had been pre-melted on the stove in a double boiler) and some cognac. I gave the whole thing one final turn of the whisk to make sure it was well blended, then took it off the stove and transferred it to a bowl to cool.

For the "Pudding" part of the cake, OR the part of the cake making when Deb starts to make an awful lot of noise, I was going to need more melted chocolate. Now I'd like to just take a moment to state here that I ALWAYS read a recipe through PRIOR to making it to make sure I have everything on hand. It was with great surprise and genuine concern that at 1:30 AM Sunday morning (when the rest of my building was sleeping) I read that I was going to need to melt 3 MORE ounces of bittersweet chocolate! Huh! I didn't see that part earlier in the day (which is when I read the recipe)... I only bought one 4 ounce bar of bittersweet chocolate at the store. About 100 things went through my mind just then, one of which was just quit now while you're ahead, another thought was there is NO WAY I'm running out at 1:30 am for chocolate and yet another thought was... "Think Deb, with all the baking you do, there must be pieces of baking chocolate around..." So, trying to be as quiet as possible I went through the cupboards carefully (I swear) moving things around to try to find a few squares of bittersweet baking chocolate. The sugar bowl had other ideas. It was perched on a box of kosher salt and when I moved the box of salt- the sugar bowl tipped over. The lid CRASHED down onto the kitchen counter and broke. The bowl part quite dramatically came tumbling down taking out a few bottles of soy sauce and vinegar with it before bouncing onto the floor and shattering. Not a good moment for me. Tom of course was not happy with Deb at that moment either. BUT... I did find 2 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate and 1 square of SWEET baking chocolate and together that made 3 ounces of bittersweet baking chocolate...YES it did.

So, promising Tom no more incidences with lots of loud crashes, I melted the pseudo bittersweet chocolate on the stove, (cute stove pic here) and went about making the rest of the cake. In a small saucepan, I combined water, buttermilk, cocoa powder, and espresso powder and brought that to a boil then taking it off the heat I whisked in the pseudo bittersweet chocolate and some sour cream and set it aside to cool next to the fudge swirl. I like the contrast of colors in the two different mixtures.

Reading the next part of the recipe nearly killed me. No, really. I needed to use the ELECTRIC MIXER! I casually mentioned this to Tom..who became more unhappy and rolled his eyes and said "Do what you need to do Deb, but you better do it fast". So, trying to be really fast, I combined 1 stick of unsalted butter that I had been instructed to chill and cut into 1 inch cubes with baking soda that had been dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Using the mixer on low speed I creamed them together then added lightly packed brown sugar and setting the mixer on high (biting my lip the whole time) I continued creaming the mixture until it was light and fluffy. Next, I needed to add 6 tablespoons of almond paste, 1 tablespoon at a time and because it was almond paste (I like this brand) it didn't easily incorporate into the mix and so I had to crank up the power on the mixer which made my brow start to sweat and generated more evil looks from Tom. And yet the need to use the blender was STILL not over because I needed to add 5 egg yolks one yolk at a time. Nancy Silverton's recipe called for 4 extra large yolks but I only had large eggs so to compensate for the discrepancy I added a 5th yolk. Once the yolks were incorporated I added a cup of chopped prunes, the chocolate mixture I made earlier, and a cup of flour. I mixed the flour into the batter in three stages turning the mixer off and OH MY GOD having to turn it back on after each batch of flour was added. You know how noise magnifies at night? And how in an apartment building with paper thin walls you can hear EVERYTHING at 2 am? Well I was convinced the cops were going to show up any minute and tell us someone had complained about the noise and I was going to have to be taken down to the station. So I made the executive decision to stop using the mixer for the last part of the recipe. Whip egg whites into stiff peaks? No problem... I'd be doing it by hand because there was no freaking WAY I was turning the mixer on again.

In a clean bowl I whipped the egg whites from the 5 eggs whose yolks I used earlier, into a froth, then I beat them and beat them and beat them and rested and then beat them some more until soft peaks formed. To the soft peaks I added granulated sugar and beat the living hell out of them some more until the soft peaks became stiffer shiny peaks. Then I poured half of those hand freaking beaten egg white peaks into the pudding batter and combined them well, THEN added the rest of the whites and folded them roughly gently into the batter. I poured the "fudge swirl" mixture into this batter and mixed until it just started to look, well... swirled. I finally poured the whole mixture into the cocoa dusted mold, placed the lid securely on top and set the whole thing into the stock pot filled it with water halfway up the sides and let it steam for 90 minutes. I wandered off to find something to do that was QUIET and could keep me awake enough to keep checking in on the progress and making sure that the water never fell below halfway. About 45 minutes into the cooking, the lid popped off from the steam pressure (I'm assuming) and by the time the cake was ready the lid had popped off completely. It was 4 am by this point, and I didn't care anymore, I was tired and hating myself for starting so late on the cake, but I pushed on anyway. I let the cake cool enough so that I could trim off the excess easily, then I turned it onto a plate for unmolding, which went fairly well. It stuck a little bit at the top and wasn't perfect but I wasn't going for perfect, I was quite happy with what I got actually. I let the cake sit out to cool until morning and then just before we left I garnished it with the roses from the chocolate leaf project and the chocolate leaves that had managed to peel away cleanly and stay intact. It was served with the creme fraiche and the combination of rich moist chocolate pudding-like cake and the tangy, spiked creme fraiche was to die for. It was a big hit at the lunch.

Would I do this again? You bet...just not at 1 am.. nope... not at 1 am EVER AGAIN.

Written by Deb on March 18, 2003 01:30 AM