Smokin' hot dessert recipe: Chocolate Pawlenty cake

Smokin' hot T-Day dessert recipe: Chocolate Pawlenty cake

by digby

In past Pre-Thanksgiving day Wednesdays,  I've posted a recipe I call "Karen Tumulty pumpkin cake"  for people to take to their feast tomorrow. You can read that recipe and the story behind it here.

This year, I thought I'd share a chocolate treat, also quite easy, although you will need at least a hand mixer to make it work.  It's a polenta cake, which means it has corn meal in it, but the texture is more like a pudding cake.

I call it Chocolate Pawlenty Cake:


Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine (Valrhona preferred in my kitchen, but Nestles chocolate chips are fine)
1 stick unsalted butter
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites
2 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Generously butter a 9 inch pie plate

Cook cornmeal at medium heat in water until thick, approximately 10 minutes.  Let stand for about 2 minutes and then add chocolate, butter and vanilla, stirring to melt chocolate. Allow to cool.

Beat egg yolks until they are light yellow, add cooled chocolate cornmeal mixture and stir to combine.

In a clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and continue whipping just until stiff and glossy, about 30 seconds.

Carefully fold the whites into the chocolate cornmeal mixture without breaking down the whites. (If you're  unsure about how to do this, here are a ton of Youtubes showing the technique. It's really easy.)

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the center is firm and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay), 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool in the pan.

Top with whipped cream.

You won't taste the cornmeal and the texture is quite creamy and chocolaty.

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