Scharffen Berger Chocolate Valentino…and a Giveaway!

This GIVEAWAY is now CLOSED. Congratulations to Katrina of Baking & Boys on her win! Katrina, please email me with your contact information, and THANKS to everyone for entering! Stay tuned, more giveaways are underway!

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope you’ve got your flowers and cards bought, your reservations made (or your menu arranged, anyway) and are feeling the love today!

I just woke up to find pictures of my life scattered about the house, taped to the mirrors, the doors, the fridge…all telling me how much I am loved, with the finale being a homemade card. Sweet, really. It never occurs to me to be romantic. Not sure why, I guess I just assume that men are manly and don’t enjoy romantic gestures. Care to weigh in on the subject? Do they? Or is it engrained in them by their mothers to do romantic things for their ladies? Do they want US to romance THEM as well? Or just bring them a beer while they play Playstation?

Wow, I get off on tangents.

You came here for chocolate. Not just any chocolate – Scharffen Berger Chocolate. Just about the best stuff you can get your hands on legally. And this recipe – the Chocolate Valentino – showcases chocolate like no other recipe can.

A Chocolate Valentino is quite simply, a flourless chocolate cake. If you’ve never made this type of confection, you’ll be pretty surprised. I know I was. How can 3 ingredients – Chocolate, Eggs, and Butter – make anything bakeable?

Oh, but they do.

What you have is a rich and thick almost brownie like dessert. Obviously, you need to use the very best chocolate you can in a recipe like this, s it is ALL you are going to taste. So, if you love the chocolate before you cut it up, you’ll love the finished product. Don’t skimp. Scharffen Berger is great for this because their chocolate is such high quality… smooth and delicious. Practically guaranteed to be an amazing result!

Officially, the Valentino is to be baked in a heart shaped pan, but not too many people have one of those. So, to keep it real, this one was baked in a square 8×8 pan, and then I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to dress it up a little bit. Success, I think, and just perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Before I go any further, I have to tell you – Jon made this for me.

While I was swamped with umpteen million Valentine’s Day orders, he agreed to be the baker on this project. Every step, he did it himself, from the double boiler, to the egg white whipping, to the folding, the baking…he did it all. Not bad for a grill guy, eh?

Without anymore teasing, I present to you…the Chocolate Valentino.

Chocolate Valentino

Slightly adapted from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

• 9.7 ounces Scharffen Berger Rich Milk Chocolate, roughly chopped
• 6 ounces Scharffen Berger Semi Sweet Chocolate, roughly chopped
• 10 Tablespoons) butter (we used salted)
• 5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with parchment then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F

9. Bake for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

11. Cut into hearts using a cookie cutter.

12. Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Now, you are wanting some of this fine chocolate yourself, aren’t you? Of course you are! Lucky for you, my friends at Scharffen Berger have offered to send a nice assortment of quality products, including baking bars and chips, to one lucky DoughMessTic reader!

To win, please leave a comment here letting me know what you would make with this chocolate should you win it. Quick and painless, right?

For an additional entry, please Tweet about this giveaway, and mention @ScharffenBerger & @doughmesstic in the tweet with a link to this Giveaway page. Be sure to come back here and leave me an additional comment on the post.

For one extra entry, Fan DOUGHMESSTIC on Facebook. Easy to do, just click over there on the sidebar, then leave me a comment saying you did. If you are already a fan, leave me a comment saying so. Easy peasy.

One more? Okay. Head over to the Scharffen Berger Facebook page and FAN them as well! Then return here one last time to comment. That’s FOUR chances to get your hands on the best chocolate out there!

Now, scoot! Get started!

Contest is open to address in the US 48 only, ages 18 and up. Winner will be determined at random on February 20, 11:59pm EST.

Fair warning – I throw out BONUS entries on Facebook and Twitter, so it’s a good idea to follow me both places! Good luck!