Dark Chocolate Cake with Red Wine Chocolate Glaze

A very intense, almost flourless chocolate cake that has a FULL pound of dark chocolate in it (a half pound in the cake and a half pound in the glaze). I've been making the Silver Palate's Chocolate Decadence for years, but frankly this one is WAY better.

I have to say I was attracted to the this recipe mainly because the glaze had red wine in it.
I was intrigued by leftover wine...
What the hell is that???
LOL, but it is true, every once in a while leftover wine does happen.
Even if you are confident you will not have a leftover wine problem any time soon, go ahead and crack open a new bottle and reserve half a cup!  Aren't I smart?
Now you'll need to get to work to polish off the rest of it.
 
Original recipe From Bon Appetit Feb 2014

Makes 10-12 servings 
Ingredients

Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), chopped
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt

Glaze and assembly: 
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), finely chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup red wine (such as Pinot Noir)

Special equipment: A 9" springform pan

For cake: 
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter and flour pan. Heat chocolate, sugar, and 1 cup butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch water), stirring, until chocolate is almost completely melted, about 3 minutes; remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Let cool completely.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, add eggs to chocolate mixture 1 at a time, beating to blend after each addition. Beat until mixture has a mousse-like consistency. Reduce speed to low and add salt and 1/3 cup flour; mix until smooth. Scrape batter into prepared pan; smooth top.
Bake cake until top is firm and edges are slightly darkened, 55–65 minutes (rely on visual cues; a tester inserted into cake's center will come out clean before cake is truly done). Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cake cool completely in pan before turning out.
 

For glaze and assembly:
Heat chocolate, butter, and salt in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch water), stirring, until chocolate and butter are melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk in powdered sugar.
Meanwhile, bring wine just to a boil in a small saucepan.
Remove chocolate mixture from heat and whisk in wine; let cool until slightly thickened and a rubber spatula leaves a trail in mixture when stirring, 8–10 minutes. 

Set cake on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. 

Pour glaze over cake and spread it across the top and over the edges with an offset spatula. Let cake stand at room temperature until glaze is set, 2–3 hours. 

Hana Banana Macadamia Crisp

 

At Mama's Fish House in Maui, they have the most delicious dessert.
Hana Banana Macadamia Nut Crisp!  
Who would have thought of banana crisp?  Well, Mama, I suppose.
What a simple idea, and it's amazingly easy to make.

I searched the internet for any recipes, but all I found was so many posts about how many people loved the dessert and wanted the recipe. Me?  I said "I can do this" in my superpower voice.

This tastes a bit like banana's Foster, that classic New Orleans dessert, only simpler to make. A perfect thing to make ahead for a dinner party and bake while you are eating the main course.  Serve with some fancy vanilla ice cream and sit back and collect the "oohs and ahhs".

As to the authenticity of this recipe, I am pretty sure my recipes differs from Mama's with the addition of rum and brown sugar instead of white. My husband said, "this is better than what we had at Mama's!".  Yes!  A keeper - - both the recipe, and the husband.

* A Hana Banana is a small banana variety, sometimes called an apple banana.  I just used regular bananas like we have on the mainland.

Serves 6
Ingredients

6 Bananas, sliced and chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup dark rum (optional)
Dash of salt
Dash of cinnamon


Crisp topping:
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oats
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Peel and slice the bananas, I chose to chop mine up as that's how it was when we had it at the restaurant.

 Mix the chopped bananas with the brown sugar, melted butter and the rum.  Add a pinch of salt and some cinnamon.  Mix well and add to small baking dishes.  Be sure to place them on a baking sheet, as you may get some spill over during the baking process.

 

Mix the topping ingredients together until it clumps together. Feel free to use your fingers, it just seems to work better like that.

 

 Add the topping to each of ramikins filled with the banana mixture.  At this point, you could chill these until you were ready to bake and serve later.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or do.  They should be bubbly and browned on the top.
Let cool for about 10-15 minutes... so, you don't burn someone's mouth off.  Mama's just don't do that.  Serve with ice cream and enjoy! 

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