​Easter 2015 and a recipe for flourless chocolate cake

Hopefully by now you are coming down from the ultimate sugar rush, Easter. I always knew we went a tad overboard with the sweets during the week devoted to the celebration of Christianity. We, as a nation, spent $16.4 billion on candy this past week. That blew my mind. I didn’t make that number up -- I heard it on CBS Money Watch.

I mentioned to a friend that this was true trickle-down economics. We all know who gets the acknowledgement and spiritual benefit; after all it’s his holiday. But it is that crazy bunny, the sugar industry, chocolate makers, advertisers, networks and packaging companies that reap the financial reward.

Back in the day, and a day way beyond my personal memory, there was no chocolate at Easter. It was beautifully handcrafted painted eggs. They told stories and took time, patience and talent to produce. In time the chocolate egg became the norm and then there was a veritable explosion, and candy took over, stealing the show.

Few people complain about having too much chocolate. American GIs won over the hearts of liberated European women with chocolate and silk stockings. Dad never did tell me which came first. Imagine a commodity that never goes out of style. It just evolves, adorning your present grocer’s shelves in many forms and flavors: sea salt, chili, caramel and mint.

Most restaurant chefs learn about chocolate by baptism with fire. If they went to a culinary college they were probably more interested in other forms of cooking than pastry. Which is why so many restaurant chefs, who cannot afford pastry chefs, find themselves with a pocketful of recipes taped to the pantry kitchen walls.

Dessert service is given to probably the lowest paid and lowest appreciated person in the kitchen, the pantry person(s). The same guy or girl responsible for your salad is making your dessert. Which is why years ago one of my pantry cooks sent out an expensive piece of chocolate cake that he had cut with the same knife he had been chopping garlic with. Ugh!

At the end of the day we all love chocolate. It exudes decadence, luxury, passion and romance. Good chocolate is expensive, and with a looming supply and demand situation it is bound to get even more so. The expense can be justified in the end result, and consequently choosing the right chocolate for maximum benefit in the end is important. Chocolate truffles are naked, with little to cover up or hide flaws, so use the best. Chocolate chip cookies are more forgiving, so lesser quality nibs work just fine.

One of my favorite recipes is for Chocolate Flourless Cake. Dense and rich, this is pure decadence and calls for good quality ingredients. As a chef for a major hotel company, I participated in a fundraising dinner for 500 people at the Corpus Christi property. Three other Texas properties participated; dividing up the four course dinner, I drew dessert.

Being new to the company as chef of their flagship property, it was go big or go home. So my pastry chef and I decided to do my signature chocolate flourless cake with chocolate ganache, white chocolate mousse, a chocolate spike and three sauces. A dramatic dessert for restaurant service, but for 500 it would be a logistic puzzle, especially as it was in another city. This is where being a chef is more than just manning a stove.

We decided the best thing to do was make everything in our kitchen and bring in on the plane with us. In the heat of Texas this was tricky. Cakes were baked and iced, mousse made and put in pastry bags along with the sauces in squeeze bottles; everything was ready to plate. That would prove to be another challenge. With two men and seven items to go on 500 plates, timing would be critical.

Commandeering a small ballroom not in use, we lined rows of tables with plates, turned the AC up as far as it would go and started the process. Three hours later there were 500 identical plates and two chefs with very sore backs from bending over plating all the items.

Now here comes the rub. After all that work producing a show-stopping ending for the dinner, and as the waiters were delivering the plates to the guests, the MC called for the band to play. The lights went down, the stage lights came up and dammed if you could see the plate in front of you. Nothing left to do but take your deflated pastry chef and get drunk in some Corpus Christi oyster bar. It was a long flight home.

Chocolate Flourless Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (have extra butter for pan)

¼ unsweetened good quality Dutch cocoa powder (have extra for pan)

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

8 ounces bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate, chopped

5 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup sour cream (not light)

¼ confectioners’ sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350. Butter a 9” springform pan and dust with cocoa powder. In a medium saucepan melt butter with a ¼ e cup heavy cream over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the chocolate, stirring until smooth, remove from heat. In a bowl whisk eggs with sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk into chocolate mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until puffed up, and set for approximately 35 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan. Beat 1 cup heavy cream with sour cream and confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks. Dust cake with cocoa powder and serve with a dollop of cream.