This recipe pulled me in with the 18 oz of chocolate it called for. Oh how I love chocolate. Oh how I had such high expectations for this cake. And while I have rated it four stars, it was a bit disappointing. First, why 4 stars. Well, it cooked really well. Conceptually, a flourless chocolate cake baked in a water bath could be a real disaster, and this definitely was not. The directions were easy, it was easy to remove from the pan (which is not always the case with flourless cakes), and it definitely tasted very rich and chocolatey. Now, why I was disappointed. Because of the fact that it had SO much chocolate (and I should have thought of this), the texture and taste very much resembled a fabulous recipe I have for chocolate satin icing that has been refrigerated. That is to say, it almosts tastes like a piece of chocolate rather than a cake or torte, and the texture is dense. Now I know this is all the qualities you are supposed to like in a flourless chocolate cake, but it was just too much for my taste. I would have liked it to be a bit lighter, and I think a recipe with less chocolate would be more to my liking. As far as modifications I made that worked well: I used a 9" deep cake pan, and it was fine (had trouble finding a 10" pan). Also, I used a combination of Scharffenberger chocolates - the bittersweet (around 80%) and a few midway bars at about 60% and a few bars which gave it a rich flavor. If ultra dense and superchocolatey is what you want, t

Reviewed On: Nov. 1, 2008

Very tasty. I have made this salad twice now. It is good with spinach as well. Re: the gorgonzola, I would recommend using domestic rather than imported as imported tends to be creamier and less clumpy and therefore does not incorporate as evenly into the salad. Also, I found the candied walnuts to be a bit sweet and would probably in the future make it using 1/2 cup walnuts and a little less than 1/4 cup sugar. Overall, an excellent, elegant salad.

Reviewed On: Dec. 6, 2007

WOW. Elegant. Subtle. Mellow. This soup exceeded my expectations. The only drawback is that the pumpkin prep is a bit time consuming, especially since, due to my small kitchen, I have a small Cuisinart and had to puree the pumpkin, then the puree and stock, in batches. But it was oh-so-worth-it! The sage and nutmeg were subtle. It tasted like an elegant first course at a fine restaurant, really! Very easy to prepare and easy to make in advance of serving, and I would recommend making the puree of pumpkin and stock and adding the whipping cream just before serving. It also re-heats well.

Reviewed On: Dec. 6, 2007