Serious Eats: Recipes
Cook the Book: Charlie's Chocolate Pudding Cake
Almost everyone is a chocolate lover. But recently, more and more people are making the leap to chocolate connoisseur. This new breed of aficionado is interested in more than milk vs. semisweet, Scharffen Berger vs. Callebaut. They want to know the math—specifically, the ratio of cacoa to other ingredients in their beloved bars.
To that end, François Payard, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Chocolate Epiphany, specifies certain percentages of chocolate with each recipe, instead of calling for "unsweetened" or "bittersweet."
Here is a simple guide:
38-40% = milk
50% = semisweet
60% = bittersweet
72% = extra bittersweet
99-100% = unsweetened
Today's recipe for Charlie's Chocolate Pudding Cake calls for 50 percent, or bittersweet, chocolate, which François notes is best for ganaches and fillings. Indeed, this dessert is about as rich as they come. Since it is baked in a water bath, it retains a molten, pudding-like center. Then in the final stages, it is coated in a rich, fudgy glaze that imparts an impressive shine.
Win 'Chocolate Epiphany'
In addition to excerpting a recipe from Chocolate Epiphany each day this week, we're also giving away five (5) copies of the book. Enter to win here.
