Calling all Chocoholics!

I'm a chocoholic and I know I'm not alone in the world! For Valentine's Day this year I wanted to make something fun for a party I was invited to. I read an article in Parade magazine (you can read it here) and decided to give it a try. I'm glad the article described the cake as a "brown, sunken-in, not-very-appetizing thing" so I wasn't surprised when I took my beautiful cake out of the oven and it fell. Apparently that's what it's supposed to do. It was easy and so yummy! I've never seen a cake be devoured so quickly so I decided to share the recipe:

Flourless Chocolate Cake
7 oz really good (45–50% cocoa) semisweet chocolate
(I just used semisweet chocolate chips)
3/4 cup butter (NOT margarine)
1 cup sugar, divided
4 eggs, separated

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Stir together half the sugar and four yolks; add to melted chocolate concoction.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites; slowly add remaining 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold mixture into chocolate. Pour into a greased 9-inch cake pan.

3. Bake 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few crumbs on it. Cool 30 minutes before removing from pan. Dust with powdered sugar.

The end result:

Bread Making

In January I decided that I wanted to learn how to make bread by hand. I've made rolls before with the help of a mixer and I decided it couldn't be that much different. I did learn how to knead bread dough when I was kid. I remember making bread with my dad. The kneading turned into just playing with the dough sometimes.
Fun memories!

I started with white bread because I've heard that's easier to make.

It turned out really yummy!
See for yourself...doesn't that look good?

Round two didn't go so well. Flat, brown bread anyone? It fell when I started to bake it. The bread still tasted ok though and I did eat it. It made good, skinny sandwiches. Haha!

Round three went much better. This is wheat bread (even though it looks really pale, I think it was just my camera flash).

I plan to keep trying because this is all part of my goal to eat more natural, whole grain foods this year. Bread making is an art and it's also a skill I want to improve. So I might make other posts about this throughout the year as I try new recipes and variations.