Chocolate Cake with Pistachio Sauce
Submitted by papa3
Rich flourless bittersweet chocolate cakes molded in heart shapes, served on a silky pistachio custard sauce. An elegant make-ahead French-inspired dessert that chills for 24 hours before its grand reveal.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
0 minREADY
1 daysThink of this as the little black dress of desserts: simple ingredients, jaw-dropping presentation.
Bittersweet chocolate melts into butter and egg yolks, then gets folded into glossy whipped whites for a mousse-like texture that’s dense yet impossibly light. The real showstopper? A from-scratch pistachio crème anglaise that pools beneath each unmolded cake like liquid gold (but green, and nuttier).
Both the cakes and sauce need a full 24 hours in the fridge, making this the ultimate dinner-party power move. Do all the work today, plate like a pro tomorrow.
Chef Tips
- Don’t skip skinning the pistachios. Blanching them in boiling water loosens the skins and keeps your sauce vibrant green instead of muddy brown.
- Rinse molds with water but don’t dry them. That thin film of moisture is what lets the cakes release cleanly when you invert them.
- Watch your custard temperature. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon but never boil, or you’ll end up with sweet scrambled eggs.
- Save leftover pistachio paste. Stir it into buttercream, fold it into cookie dough, or spread it on toast. It keeps in the fridge for a week.
Ingredients
Directions
TO MAKE THE CAKE: melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat. Add ¼ cup of sugar and the butter and stir until melted. Whisk in the egg yolks. Cook stirring constantly until mixture reaches 160~ on a candy thermometer. Set aside to cool. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the remaining sugar and beat until glossy. Whisk ⅓ of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining whites. Rinse 4 to 4 oz. heart shaped molds or ramekins with water; DO NOT DRY. Divide the chocolate mixture among the molds. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
TO MAKE THE SAUCE: Remove as much skin as possible from the pistachios. Rinse quickly with boiling water, drain and then remove as much of the remaining skin as possible. Place the nuts in a food processor and pulse until ground. Add ⅓ cup of sugar and the egg white and process until mixture forms a paste. Place 3 tablespoon of the pistachio paste in a medium sized saucepan (save the rest for another use). Add the milk and bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into another medium size saucepan. Set aside.
Whisk together the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until thick and light. Whisk in half the strained milk; then whisk the mixture back into the remaining milk. Cook the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon; do not let the mixture come to a boil. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
TO SERVE: Spoon a pool of the sauce onto the center of each of 4 plates. Run the tip of a small knife around the inside edge of the molds. Dip them briefly into hot water and invert them onto the plates.
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