Seized Chocolate

[Barbara]

Here is the America's Test Kitchen recipe for Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake:

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/1865990-Triple-Chocolate-Mousse-Cake

If you will notice, the second layer calls for melted chocolate which is then blended with hot water blended with cocoa powder. Can somebody please explain to me how you can add water to melted chocolate and not have it seize up?

So much for their "fail proof" recipes.  This mess will be dessert for tomorrow night's dinner--but I have already thrown the printed out recipe in the trash.

There must be a technique involved that they didn't mention and I don't know about. How can so many people make this cake and not run into the same problem???

[porcupine]

Julia Child in The Way to Cook:  "Most of the recipes in this book call for chocolate melted in a small amount of liquid flavoring, such as coffee or rum.  The minimum amount of liquid is 1 tablespoon per 2 ounces of chocolate - you can add more but not less or the chocolate will stiffen."

The recipe for chocolate mouse calls for 8 oz chocolate melted with 1/4 cup strong coffee.  I've made that mousse many many times, and a few times the mixture seized.  I'm not sure why.

The ATK recipe as written doesn't sound like it would work, with the liquid and chocolate being combined after the chocolate is melted.   Have you tried contacting them to ask?  I'd like to know the answer, too.

[zoramargolis]

What if you heat the liquid and melt the chocolate in it, rather than adding the (cold) liquid to the melted chocolate?

[Barbara]

What if you heat the liquid and melt the chocolate in it, rather than adding the (cold) liquid to the melted chocolate?

That would probably work.  However, that isn't the only problem with this recipe. I had to wash out all the mixer equipment THREE times in order to make all the layers, and the bottom flourless chocolate cake is marginal  at best. It shrinks too much, so that getting perfect layers is problematical. I'm going back to cheesecakes and layer cakes.

I'm just surprised that ATK would publish a recipe with so many problems.

[squidsdc]

That sounds so frustrating! Jeff's made many cakes mixing liquid with melted chocolate and only had the chocolate seize when he first started baking long ago. Cool liquid might be one of the issues, as Zora said as well. He says he would melt the chocolate and let it cool per the directions, then make the cocoa water slurry so that it does not have a chance to cool down to the point it is cold before adding it to the melted chocolate. He also adds that the instructions do seem to be out of order; his theory that the melted chocolate will retain its heat longer than the water mix is why he woud reverse the steps. And as Porcupine mentioned, a lesser amount of liquid is likely to make the chocolate seize.

I've never hear of "tastebook" --is it truly showing the ATK recipe as written? Maybe it's just a crappy recipe, but even so, I personally find the way ATK details the reasoning behind what they do in the actual books to answer a lot of questions in process. Now I'm curious to look for the recipe in one of our own books!

[lperry]

If it seizes, you can add in a little coconut oil, butter, or Crisco, and it will smooth out. 

[Barbara]

That sounds so frustrating! Jeff's made many cakes mixing liquid with melted chocolate and only had the chocolate seize when he first started baking long ago. Cool liquid might be one of the issues, as Zora said as well. He says he would melt the chocolate and let it cool per the directions, then make the cocoa water slurry so that it does not have a chance to cool down to the point it is cold before adding it to the melted chocolate. He also adds that the instructions do seem to be out of order; his theory that the melted chocolate will retain its heat longer than the water mix is why he woud reverse the steps. And as Porcupine mentioned, a lesser amount of liquid is likely to make the chocolate seize.

I've never hear of "tastebook" --is it truly showing the ATK recipe as written? Maybe it's just a crappy recipe, but even so, I personally find the way ATK details the reasoning behind what they do in the actual books to answer a lot of questions in process. Now I'm curious to look for the recipe in one of our own books!

I had actually printed out the recipe a couple of years ago, when the recipe was first published on ATK's site.  However, if you don't pay them some $$, you can't access their older recipes. I was looking at other websites that talked about this recipe to see if it had caused problems for others and just posted this one because it was the same recipe as posted on the ATK site.

Using everybody's suggestions here, I could obviously make this again (it really looks impressive--even with the goofs--and tastes just fine); but not without a better bottom layer. I may try adapting St. Julia's flourless chocolate cake for this. Maybe for the DR.com Spring Picnic, if we have one.