Valentine's Day at our house involves eating some form of chocolate and watching the movie Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. This Valentines Day was not different. Even though we are not all together (Bailey is in Columbia), we all planned to celebrate the same way. Bailey told me earlier in the week that she and her roommate, Kelcey, planned to watch the movie and make something chocolate, I hope that worked out, sometimes college life, athletic training or study change the best laid plans.

Our Movie

Our Chocolate

 (the cake tastes better than it looks, this is where it becomes obvious that I am not a professional baker, my cakes are not always pretty but usually they are tasty!)

Flourless Nutella Chocolate Cake

(from the Unofficial Guide to Nutella, download for Kindle)

also available on the World Nutella Day website

200g  unsalted butter, cut into chunks (7.05 ounces butter)

100g dark chocolate  (3.52 ounces dark chocolate)

200g Nutella  (7.05 ounces Nutella)

100g white sugar  (3.52 ounces sugar)

6 eggs, separated

1 t. instant coffee or espresso powder (not for me)

hazelnuts for garnish

1.      Butter and lightly coat a 9- inch spring-form pan with cocoa powder. Preheat the oven to 350 and move your baking rack to the lowest rung/place in the oven.

2.    Cut the butter into chunks and the dark chocolate as well, and melt in a double boiler or in the microwave until smooth. If melting in a microwave, take out to stir every 30 seconds or so until smooth.

3.    Remove from heat/microwave and add the Nutella to the still-warm chocolate mix and mix well, until incorporated completely with a small whisk or fork. Add the instant coffee/espresso powder as well and mix.

4.    Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into two separate bowls. Add the white sugar to the yolks and beat for a minute or two with a hand mixer or a whisk.

5.    Add the chocolate mixture to the egg yolks and mix thoroughly.

6.    In a bowl where the egg whites are separated out, whisk/beat them until peaks start to form, tending toward stiffer peaks rather than just soft peaks.

7.    Add the beaten egg whites back to the chocolate mixture, mixing by hand until fully incorporated (this may take a few minutes) with a whisk.

8.    Pour the mixture into the spring-form pan and place into the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes (mine was done closer to 30 minutes). Test after 20 minutes how jiggly the center of the cake still is – you don’t want the cake to be completely solid when finished but the center should not sway when moved. Stick a toothpick in a few places to make sure it’s cooked through and the toothpick comes out clean.

9.    Let cool (the cake will probably deflate quite a bit) at least 30 minutes before serving, and garnish with chopped hazelnuts or hazelnut halves.

I cooked the cake longer than 30 minutes, I checked it with a toothpick as suggested. I think it would have been good, just gooey-er if I had stopped baking at the 30 minutes. I garnished with walnuts because we didn't have any hazelnuts. I made a raspberry-chocolate sauce of my own design by melting chocolate chips and combining with (frozen) raspberries. We loved it!