Let them eat cake. . .

This was my second attempt at this scrumptious chocolate polenta pudding cake. It gets better with each try. The first time I used BIG chunks of baker’s chocolate. Half way through the chocolate chopping process, I pleaded with my husband to take over. He is NOT a kitchen-kind-of-guy but he took mercy on me and started chopping while I attended to the polenta. I think he gets nervous when he sees me wielding large, menacing knives.

Admittedly, I didn’t realize how many steps there were in making this cake. The recipe was a little sketchy but I was determined to produce a cake that grandma would have been proud of. The ingredients reminded me of her famous chocolate cookies. Besides, it came from The Italian Country Table cookbook. How could I go wrong?

I left the polenta on the double boiler and went to work separating the eggs and whipping the whites until “soft peaks” formed. When the buzzer rang, I checked the polenta. Oops, I missed the piece about stirring the polenta three or four times as it cooks. It looked like a mass of lumps and bubbles. No problem. I threw the mixture into the Vitamix and pulverized it until it was smooth enough to combine with the finely chopped chocolate, orange zest, cinnamon, pepper, yolks, and vanilla.

Why am I telling you all this? Because even a “culinary nutritionist” makes mistakes in the kitchen. That’s half the fun. Here’s the recipe along with some photos to guide you in the process. The second time round I used two four-ounce bars of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate because they are easier to chop and gluten-free. You can grind them up in your food processor and save yourself a lot of time. Be sure to leave some of the chunks a little bigger. They get folded into the batter. This recipe is a keeper. Try it, you’ll like it!