Recommendations
Flourless chocolate cake with Osborne Pedro Ximenez
On the plate lies a wedge of tart that consists of nothing but pure chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs, with an edge that is dry and a middle that stays moist. Set against that is a Pedro Ximenez, almost black in the glass, that catches the bitterness of the chocolate.
From the shelf
The bottle
Osborne has its bodegas in El Puerto de Santa Maria and has made sherry there since 1772; the house keeps some of the oldest sweet soleras in the region. This bottle is a Pedro Ximenez: according to the house, the grapes are first laid in the sun, the soleo, after which the must is pressed and fermentation is stopped with wine alcohol. The wine then ages for an average of six years in American oak in the solera y criadera system; the bottle's own page states an average of five years. It is deep chocolate brown and very sweet, with notes of raisin, molasses and plum, and comes in 75 centilitres. We do not state the alcohol percentage here, because the figures differ; the Consejo Regulador sets 15 to 22 percent for this style and more than 212 grams of residual sugar per litre.
The combination
Why this works together
Dark chocolate is bitter, and bitterness is the taste that gives way most readily to sweetness in a mixture. Green and colleagues found in 2010 that bitterness in mixtures was suppressed by up to 86.2 percent, while sweetness itself dropped by at most 42.7 percent. That is exactly what happens here: with more than 212 grams of residual sugar per litre, the Pedro Ximenez takes the bitter edge off the chocolate, without the glass itself losing any strength. Then there are the flavours that belong together without being the same. The sun-drying and the years of oxidative ageing bring raisin, molasses and plum, and in a chocolate cake these coincide with the roasted cocoa notes. The third point is fat: this cake consists largely of butter and cocoa butter, and a wine that is itself almost syrupy can hold its ground beside it where a light sweet wine would disappear. The Consejo Regulador explicitly names desserts based on slightly bitter chocolate for Pedro Ximenez.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 50 minutes
- Type dessert
What you need
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 150 g butter
- 125 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- icing sugar for dusting
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a springform tin of 20 centimetres.
- Roughly chop the chocolate and cut the butter into small pieces.
- Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together in a bain-marie or in the microwave until everything has dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
- Whisk the eggs and the pinch of salt into the chocolate mixture with a whisk until it forms a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into the tin and bake the tart for 25 to 30 minutes.
- Let the cake stand for ten to fifteen minutes before taking it out of the tin. Dust it with icing sugar and serve at room temperature.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this Pedro Ximenez between 12 and 14 degrees, the temperature the Consejo Regulador prescribes for this style; younger sweet wines may be cooler, and Osborne itself gives 12 to 16 degrees. Use a white wine glass or a catavinos of about 200 millilitres and pour no more than a thin layer in the bottom. After opening this sherry keeps for about two months, with the bottle closed and stored cool.
All about Osborne Pedro XimenezBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18