Valentine Greetings

An early valentine greeting just for you from Ever Ready

and a recipe

Five Spice Flourless Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)
Cook’s notes: It’s a rich and moist flourless mascarpone cake infused with 5-spice powder sure to please the chocolate lover. The texture is more like a mousse, very delicate and literally melts in your mouth. Chinese five-spice powder is made of star anise, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, and fennel seeds being ground into powder. This blend of five spices is extensively used in Chinese cuisine. It brings warm, spicy-sweet flavors to stir-fries and roasted meats, as well as spice cakes and cookies.
I made mini ones in a small tin which look like lava cakes when baked when just a small bite will do.  

Recipe adapted from https://flourishen.blogspot.com/2015/02/five-spice-flourless-chocolate-cakes.html? The recipe makes 9 mini cakes using a small muffin tin or 6 large ones using a large muffin tin. 
Ingredients:

• 2 TB. melted butter
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate bar and 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. Chinese five–spice powder
• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 TB. Amaretto or ½ tsp. almond extract

Directions:

• Grease muffin tins with melted butter and dust with cocoa powder. Tap out the excess powder and set aside. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
• Combine mascarpone and ½ cup cream, beat until well mixed. Add in eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Set aside.
• Combine chocolate chunks, sugar and five spice powder in a small saucepan. Set pan in a larger pan of simmering hot water. Stir until chocolate is completely melted about 5 minutes. 
• Bring ½ cup cream just to a boil in another saucepan; add heated cream to chocolate mixture to combine. Remove from heat.
• Add chocolate mixture to mascarpone mixture. Beat on medium speed just until combined. Do not over mix. 
• Fill each muffin cup ¾ full of batter. Bake until centers are set about 35 minutes for small muffin tin or 45 minutes for larger tin.
• Let cake sit in pan 5 minutes, unmold each cake by running a knife around the outer edge. Invert on to a serving plate. 
• Suggested garnishes: whip cream with a raspberry, dust with powdered sugar or a drizzle of heated chocolate sauce. 

Don't forget

 

Check out 

http://www.wwnrockport.com/2017/02/the-world-according-to-bella-wintry.html