The Best Chocolate Cake

This cake isn't cakey. That probably sounds strange, but I mean that it's not your average birthday cake with layers of buttercream. It's a dense chocolaty flourless cake that isn't a cop out, and is best served with creme anglaise or fresh berries.
It's not just chocolate wither. There's vanilla, espresso, salt, and cinnamon going on there too. You don't taste them all separately, though. All of these additions share flavor notes with the chocolate, and just make the cake taste even more chocolatey. I like to use Valrhona for these because it has a more intense chocolatey flavor than my usual baking favorite, Scharffen Berger, which is sweeter with a little bit more fruit.
If you have a favorite brand, though go ahead and use that. I just prefer the less fruity flavor because the darkness of the Valrhona ties in better with the earthy flavor additions.

Deep Chocolate Cake
10 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, diced
5 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp instant espresso
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9 inch cake pan and dust with cocoa powder, tapping out the extra. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, and add the vanilla, salt, and cinnamon.
In a small saucepan or microwave safe bowl, melt the butter, and add the espresso powder, then add the chocolate to the hot butter, and stir until melted and smooth.
Slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into the eggs, whisking the whole time.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and cover with a sheet of tin foil. Put the pan in a roasting pan and fill 1/2 way up the side with boiling water.
Bake the cake for an hour to an hour and15 minutes, or until the cake is set on top. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack and cooling to room temperature.

Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies were a challenge to myself.
I sometimes do that, set random challenges for myself when I am bored.

This time around, I wanted to make my favorite thing ever: A Chocolate Chip Cookie
The rules were: I needed to use up the rest of my glutenous rice flour, left from mochi making
                         I needed to make something totally gluten free without a trip to the grocery store
                         I needed to make something with browned butter. And 1 bowl. (Mix in the pot!)
                         I needed to make something that I would want to eat myself.

My chips were a little...huge

These cookies are chewy! There's really no other way of describing them, other than beautifully caramelized, golden with browned butter, and extra soft from extra brown sugar.
Really, though, they're the chewiest cookies I've ever had. I love it!
The recipe may seem a little confusing as they are gluten free cookies, made with glutenous flour. This description is just of the texture of the flour, not the actual gluten content.

I sometimes find the texture and taste of rice flour a little too starchy and just a little off, but the toastyness of the browned butter, the slightly caramelized sugar, and chunky chocolate (something I usually don't go for in chocolate chip cookies) meld so well together, and really counteract any white-starch taste that could otherwise lead to a pasty cookie.

Browned Butter and Brown Sugar

Gluten Free Browned Butter Cookies

1 stick of butter, browned
1 stick of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups + Tbs glutenous rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Preheat oven to 350ºF, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream the softened butter and white sugar until fluffy.
Brown the other stick of butter in a medium sauce pan. Quickly mix in the brown sugar and mix well, until some of the sugar has totally dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Beat in the softened butter and white sugar and add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk out any lumps in the flour, and to combine.
Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar, mixing well with a rubber spatula. Gently fold in the chocolate chunks.
Portion the dough into 1 inch balls and refrigerate for 1 to three hours. Place chilled dough on the cookie sheets and bake for 9 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges but still soft in the middle.

*These are slightly different from standard cookies, in that they can be under baked. I know, it's a great shock, but it's true. Rice flour has a slightly starchy consistency so if it's under baked the cookies will taste a bit off. Letting the dough sit and meld in the fridge will help a lot with this, so make sure it gets at least 1 hour to chill*

Quick Dark Chocolate Marzipan

Sometimes, you need to make something really quick, but you still need it to be really good and special. This is where marzipan comes in. I have shared a recipe for a long form marzipan before, but I'm currently in the process of stocking up on hand made food gifts for the seemingly endless number of graduation parties I have this summer, so I don't have the time or patience to be grinding almonds and cooking egg whites to perfection.

This is not a very sweet marzipan, and it leans on the side of stickiness, but that's how I like mine, all almond flavor with a sharp contrast between the texture of the chocolate filling and the marzipan casing.

You can make these with any type of chocolate filling, but I like a dark chocolate with a fairly low percentage of cocoa solids. I generally go with about 60% cocoa. This may seem a little strange, but it's meant to balance out the pure nuttiness of the marzipan. Think of it this way, if you need a bitter chocolate, your marzipan is too sweet.

(I know, I need to get some more plates for photos)

Quick Marzipan with Dark Chocolate
Makes 30 filed marzipan cups

8 oz Almond paste (not marzipan)
1 Tbs light corn syrup
1/2 tsp almond extract
3.5 oz dark chocolate

In break the almond paste into peces a bowl. With a hand mixer, beat the almond paste until smooth. Add the corn syrup and and almond extract continue beating until it forms a smooth dough. If the mix is too dry, add a teaspoon of corn syrup. You want a slightly sticky dough, so if the dough is too wet, add a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar.
Form into small balls and make a dip in the center of each with your finger tip, to make a small bowl shape.
Melt and temper the chocolate. Use a small spoon or squeeze bottle to fill the marzipan bowls to the top with chocolate. Chill in the refrigerator until the chocolate is completely set and the marzipan is dry, about 2 to three hours or over night. Package, share, enjoy!