Flourless Chocolate Cake (Long-live Christmas 2009)

Many of you spent at least some time with Katie and me during the Christmas 2009 vacation.  That was the that we drove out to Utah with Eph and Amy and co.  It was the Christmas that Eph took STEPII (and consequently didn't talk to anyone for most of two weeks).  It was also the Christmas that Katie decided flourless chocolate cake was something to be made on a bi- or tri-weekly basis.  She has since grown out of that phase, but I recently revisited the recipe in an attempt to impress my chocolate-loving boss at to his holiday-turned-Valentine's Day party.  Here's the recipe, courtesy of marthastewart.com:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 6 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees; with rack in center. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Place butter and chocolate in a large bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time, until melted; cool slightly. Whisk in yolks.
2. In another bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar; beat until stiff and glossy. Whisk 1/4 of whites into chocolate mixture; gently fold mixture into remaining whites.
3. Pour into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and is just set in center, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Serve dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Since I was taking it to a party, I decided to one and half the recipe and bake it in a 10" spring form pan.  This worked very well.  I cooked about 55 minutes, which was honestly too long.  I would encourage you to bake the cake until just set.  This well accentuate the almost molten, but not quite gooey chocolate goodness of the cake.   I used Aldi's Moser Roth 85% cocoa chocolate bars, which was excellent (this is our favorite chocolate), but we have also used Giradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips and, of course, the dark chocolate bars that Roger so generously gave us back in 2009.  This recipe is really straight forward and fast and is hard to beat as far as a straight-up intense chocolate dessert (although Amy's brownies give it a good run for the money).

Enjoy!