Flourless Chocolate Cake - the most intense chocolate experience of your life

I recently had dinner with some of my awesome cousins, aunt, and uncle. I have a LOT of cousins. My dad's dad had about 8 or 9 siblings, so we have a large family. Which means pretty much wherever I go I have family. Which makes me quite happy!

Now, one of my cousins-in-law (can I do that?) has celiac disease, whereby ingesting gluten causes him extreme discomfort (among other symptoms). So when I offered to make a gluten-free dessert I would make something that didn't just replace regular gluten with gluten-free flours (for instance something made with almond flour or the like), but instead didn't call for any flour at all.

This made me recall a delicious cake I had had at a family gathering of BFF's. So I thought, LET'S DO THIS.

What recipe: Unforgettable (Flourless) Chocolate Cake by America's Test Kitchen
What I changed: Nothing! The first time I make something I try to stick as close to the recipe as possible - this is good because then I know what the original tastes like and if I feel like changing it later, I know what I'd like to add.

One of the better parts of this recipe is that is requires so few ingredients. However, it requires a lot of the few ingredients it does make use of.

*Special note - this puppy has to harden overnight in your fridge. Do not make this the same day of (like I did) unless you start it early in the morning so it has enough time to settle.

Ingredients:
- 8 COLD large eggs
- 1 pound bittersweet chocolate
- 2 sticks (half a pound) of unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup (strong) coffee, espresso, coffee flavored liqueur
- powdered sugar or cocoa powder to make it pretty

STEP 1: 
Set oven to 325 degrees F. Get out 8" springform pan. At this point start boiling water unless you have an electric kettle. Depending on the size of your high-sided roasting pan, you should be OK with 5-10 cups of water. But see STEP 5 for more information to see what the hell I'm talking about.

Coarsely chop up the chocolate and cut up the butter into 1/2 inch cubes or so. Put these together in a metal bowl to melt over boiling water (home made double-boiler!) or melt it all in batches in the microwave. Make VERY SURE not to burn this! This is the gold. Once it is all melted, mix it together and add in the coffee/espresso/coffee flavored liqueur. If doing this over a double boiler, only mix once or twice while it's melting. Temperature should reach 115 degrees F.

While the above is melting, proceed to the next step:
STEP 2:
Crack all the eggs into a large bowl, and get your electric mixer out. Mix together on high for about 5 minutes - your eggs should double in size and become almost all foam.

STEP 3:
Ideally once your eggs have doubled in volume, your chocolate mixture is done. Take 1/3 of the egg foam and fold it into the chocolate mixture. Once there are only a few small patches of egg foam still visible, add in the next third, and fold this in too. Continue until all the egg foam has been added. This should look like a fluffier chocolate mixture, with all the egg foam completely folded in.

STEP 4:
Cover the bottom of your springform pan with parchment paper (this means your cake comes out nicely at the end). Grease the sides of the pan VERY WELL - use whatever you like, butter, canola oil etc. Cover the outside of the springform pan with foil - the next part is weird, so just go with me on this one. Pour in your chocolate/butter/egg mixture. Smooth it out with a rubber spatula.

STEP 5: 
Put the springform pan into a larger roasting pan with high sides. Pour in boiling water AROUND the springform pan (absolutely NOT into it). This is why we added the foil, so water can't seep in through the springform pan while the concoction is baking.

STEP 6:
Careful put this whole setup into the oven, and bake it for 22-25 minutes. The middle should be 140 degrees F, the sides should appear to harden, and the top should have a hardened sheen to it, like the way brownie's get when they're done (thanks for that helpful tip, America's Test Kitchen!).

STEP 7: 
Pull it out of the oven, cool it down to room temperature on a cooling rack, then cover it with foil or plastic wrap and put it in your fridge overnight. Don't be concerned when you pull it out of the oven - it's gonna look like it's still wiggly and wobbly and not done. But remember, most of these ingredients melt at high temperatures. This is why the cake has to chill in the fridge overnight! As long as the outside looks right and you measured the temperature of the middle of the cake, then you are good to go.

About 30 min before you want to serve it, take this guy out of the fridge, take it out of the springform pan (I would carefully flip it upside down, take off the sides, then take the bottom and parchment paper off), dust it with powdered sugar or cocoa, and cut it in small pieces to serve. This is a SUPER rich cake, so a little goes a long way. Sorry no final money shot where the cake looks all pretty and stuff - it didn't solidify until I had put it in my cousin's freezer! ;) My family liked it served with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!