Daring Bakers Challenge February: Flourless Chocolate cup cakes with No-Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.They have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The flour less chocolate cake was total chocoholic's delight,reminded me of the Chocolate Espresso Mousse cake I baked earlier,that was also flour-free.I don't miss making low-fat recipes whenever possible,since I already experimented this kind of cake with no-fat I use just quarter of the fat as mentioned in the Original Daring Baker's recipe,it worked just fine for me.
For the Ice cream thankfully we were allowed to choose our own flavor,Pomegranate was ultimate pick.Since fresh fruit is not in season I choose the store-bought 100% Pomegranate Juice.To make it easier I made a No-churn Ice-cream that does not require the Ice-cream maker.
Bringing the Ice cream together with Cupcakes was a little messy,but worth the effort.These Frozen Cupcakes would make a perfect dessert on hot summer days,speaking of warmth,its still predominantly chilling here,and I'm yearning for a warm change.



Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
Recipe from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

Makes 10 Medium cupcakes

Ingredients

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons of unsalted Organic butter
5 large Organic eggs ,separated

Method
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,line with the muffin pan with parchment cups or spray a little non-stick spray.
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. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into the prepared muffin pan, the batter should fill the cups 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until crust appears like brownie cake.The cake will puff up considerably but will collapse later.
10.Get the cup cakes out and cool on a rack.

Recipe adapted from Nigella's recipe.And David Lebovitz's method of making Ice cream without machine.
No-Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream
3 cups of pomegranate juice,preferably POM
2 cups Coconut milk(or use 1 cup half & half milk and 1 cup light cream)

Method
Whisk the cream with the juice until soft peaks forms.Transfer in a freezer proof container,cover tightly and place in freezer.After about 30 minutes,while the mixture is just starting to set ,stir and return to the freezer.Repeat this 3-4 times i.e every 30 minutes until mixture is almost frozen takes about 2-3 hours.Cover and keep in refrigerator until time to serve.


Assemble the cupcakes and Ice cream
Check out this cool page,which gave me the idea of making Ice cream cupcakes.
After the cup cakes are completely cooled,removed its parchment cups if used.Transfer cupcakes back to the muffin pans,even out the surface,since the chocolate cupcakes were a little hallow on the inside after baking,I simply had to lightly press it until almost half full.Cover with plastic wrap and freeze the cupcakes for at least 2 hours until hardened.
Get the Ice cream out ,let sit for 30 minutes until softened to work with.After the cupcakes are frozen,scoop the ice cream and set over the cupcakes just until the cups are full.Cover and return to freezer,let set for 2-3 hours before trying to get it out.Warm a small sharp knife under hot running water ,run the warm knife along the edges of the ice cream cupcake until it’s easily lifted out of it’s tin.

Serve
I made some pomegranate syrup,by reducing 1 cup Pomegranate juice with a tablespoon of brown sugar to 1/2 a cup.Cool completely before drizzling on the cupcakes.Garnish with fresh berries,I used the tangy sweet blackberries.

Thank you Wendy and Dharm for the Sweet Chocolaty challenge.Check out how other Daring Bakers have whipped up this delectable delight.