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I love a recipe with a story, and this one starts with "You're fired." For creative insubordination. Dorie Greenspan was the apprentice pastry chef at one of the trendiest restaurants in New York City at the time: The Soho Charcuterie. She was bored making the same two desserts over and over every day so she tweaked this cake slightly and sent it out for service. "I was fired .. for "creative insubordination" — how could I have known how angry everyone would be when, without mentioning it, I did away with the rum-soaked raisins in the chocolate cake and replaced them with Armagnac-soaked prunes!"
— Dorie Greenspan in an article for Les Dames Escoffier International
The Cake
Dorie's Chocolate Armagnac Cake is a variation on a Chocolate Whiskey Cake known as Le Doris that was created by Simone "Simca" Beck (one of Julia Child's co-authors of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I: 40th Anniversary Edition).
The Chocolate Whiskey Cake appeared in Simca's cookbook, Simca's Cuisine,
and it was the one served at The Soho Charcuterie.Prunes for Raisins, Armagnac for Whiskey, Pecans for Almonds
I was curious and decided to make the two versions of the cake to taste side-by-side. To see what the hubbub was about. To taste the cake worthy of firing someone for. So I found the original version of Simone Beck's recipe for Chocolate Whiskey Cake, compared it to Dorie's and basically substituted raisins for prunes and almonds for pecans. I wanted to buy Armagnac, but at $99 CAD for a bottle, I had to settle for cognac. I ended up using cognac in both versions so it's not a true taste test, but it was close enough.
Another food writer, Florence Fabricante, award-winning author for The New York Times has her own version of this cake too. Her changes include increasing the quality and amount of chocolate, using brown sugar, currants instead of raisins, and sometimes almond flour instead of all-purpose flour. She also uses Irish whiskey.Malcolm Jolley: Why did you get fired?
Dorie Greenspan: Prunes.
— From an interview between Malcolm Jolley and Dorie
Every baker is a recipe hacker. I, too, use what I have available, leave out what I don't like, adjust the technique, and find a unique way to present it. A recipe is a sweet muse.
Virtual Dorie
I saw Virtual JFK on the weekend, and it made me think about what-if scenarios. What if Dorie had used currants instead of prunes? Would she have been fired? Would she have settled into a career as a pastry chef? Would we have Baking: From My Home to Yours and bake each week through this wonderful cookbook? It's thanks to her tweaks and experimentation that we have so many beloved recipes. Cheers to her creative insubordination.
Recipe
Makes 8 servings (I halved each recipe)
water, cognac & prunes/water, cognac & raisins
pecans, flour & salt/almonds, flour & salt
eggs, water, butter, chocolate, sugar/Glaze ingredients
Dorie's Chocolate Armagnac Cake
For the Cake:
2/3 cup finely ground pecans (or walnuts)
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
12 plump, moist prunes, pitted if necessary and cut into bits
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons water
¼ cup Armagnac (or cognac, brandy or Scotch whiskey)
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
3 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup sugar
For the Glaze:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Simone Beck's recipe for Chocolate Whiskey Cake
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, more for pan
1/3 cup dried currants
½ cup Irish whiskey
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 70 percent cacao, in pieces
Salt
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Confectioners' sugar
1 cup heavy cream
You can find the recipe for Chocolate Armagnac Cake in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to LyB from of And then I do the dishes who chose the recipe for this week.
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Tasting Notes
This almost flourless cake is intense, fudgy, rich, velvety chocolate decadence with a slight kick from the cognac. The dense chocolate is taken to an al dente stage that melts immediately on your tongue. Though delicious on its own, a whiff of whipped cream or a swirl of vanilla ice cream and a strong espresso makes it perfection. To me, that is.
My daughter, on the other hand, asked after taking one bite and tasting a raisin: "What's in this?!" And then after finding out, she wondered: "Can you make it without raisins and prunes?" I'll try.
Update: Now that we've had a few days to savor these cakes, I have to say that we finished the prune version first. The prunes melted into the cake, making it moister. In the raisin cake, the raisins were not subtle. If you got a bit with a raisin, it tasted like raisin and chocolate. I think if I had soaked the raisins longer, this wouldn't have happened.
Recipe for Next Week (March 10)
Lemon Cup Custard on page 387 chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles
My Bucket List
Pruneaux à l'Armagnac
• Pruneaux au vin blanc (Prunes cooked in white wine)
Other Tipsy Cakes
• "For Dessert, a Cake That Asks for a Snifter of Irish", Chocolate Whiskey Cake by Florence Fabricante
• "When Temperance Isn't in the Cards", Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake by Melissa Clarke
• Michelle Johnston's The Devil for Breakfast
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39 comments:
I love that you did a taste test. I would be up for tasting both:)
So you made both. You would!! :)
I am with your little girl though - no raisins or prunes would be better!
Nice job again this week - I love all of your background info.
Wow you were so brave !! I loved the prune version a lot !!
Great write up as always! Both of your cakes look great!
They both sound wonderful. Well done!
I'm with your daughter - I want this cake without raisins! I loved the chocolate flavor, especially the glaze.
I've made this cake a few times now but always with prunes and armagnac, I love it!
I loved the prunes in the cake. My kids did not. Darn it, because flambee-ing the prunes was the funnest part!
wonderful work! Am I the only one who can appreciate the fork in your picture?
Oooh, nice job this week! A+ for you :)
It's interesting that there was no difference in taste. It makes me wonder what was up at the restaurant where Dorie was fired. Could the customers really tell a difference?
Anyway, your cakes look fantastic.
I love stories like that, but I can totally see it from the chef's perspective - you have to ask before you can change stuff! I like the no-fruit version myself. :)
I love a good taste test. I guess the chocolate makes it hard to tell the difference, but I'm sure both cakes were delicious!
Btw, I was thinking the other day about butter and I'm not sure if it was you who did a butter review. I tried looking for that page and was unable to find it. For some reason when it came to butter (practically the most important ingredeitn) I didn't think too much of it and used whatever was on sale. It wasn't until I bought some Lactantia when I realized how much of a difference it makes in cupcakes. The selection of butter we have isn't that big, but I was wondering which brand you like using?
beautiful cake! so in the end she got fired for something barely noticeable ;) maybe when using the armagnac it would be a lot different, but WOW that is expensive! i didn't buy any either ;)
You are very thorough! The cakes look lovely. I went with the raisin/whisky version. Tasty!
I love your square shot glass.
Your cake looks wonderful.
i love creative insubordination! interesting taste-test results...sounds like maybe dorie was needlessly fired!
How interesting that you all couldn't taste the difference. I almost made the two versions (well almost may be an exageration. I thought about doing it for a split second), but didn't because I didn't want the extra work.
Your cakes look gorgeous by the way.
What a great post. I enjoyed reading the article and printed out both recipes. Lots of good info with a great story. The photos really looked yummy!
Your pictures are gorgeous! Funny that you couldn't tell the difference in the two cakes.
Great idea to try both fruits. I'm still trying to decide which one to use (I'm a bit behind in my baking). I'm curious how this will compare to the flourless chocolate cake I just made.
Beautiful!
So? Did I miss it... or you're not telling us which you liked best!!!???
Hummm... everyday seems to be a tasting test day, at your house! LOL ... do you have space for one more, can you adopt me? lol
Just lovely again! Your blog makes me drool all the time!
I'm among the many that are impressed by the fact that you made both. Great job!
Wow, by making both versions, you've answered my question - there isn't much difference between the two recipes! Loved your post on this --- thank you for sharing!!!
Not only do I like looking at your pictures, I love the information you give.
I didn't know the history behind this cake :), how interesting; talent is often criticized before it's well-received. This looks so moist, the way a good chocolate cake should be!
I cannot even believe you made both cakes! What a trooper you are. I struggle to get one done right. I really liked the prune version, but I think raisens would be good too. Basically I loved this cake!!
This glaze looks heavenly!
well done for the taste test !!! your cakes look great !!
It's not really a cake that seems to appeal to kids, all the more for us grownups! I love your investigative approach in creating a head-to-head tasting.
drool drool drool
I love the looks of the cake and also the color of your plate!
I love that you did the side-by-side taste test. What a great and creative idea. The cake looks absolutely delicious. So moist and chocolatey!
You are so right about the "what if's?" An amazing concept in life. thanks for sharing the wealth of info about this cake. I am fascinated with the notion that there was no discernible difference. Amazing. Either way, I really am glad you educated us about this dorie adventure. Great cake!
AmyRuth
Wow, you made both variations? Great job! This wasn't my favorite recipe but your cakes look lovely.
Yours, both of them, look gorgeous and you really, really, should be cooking professionally somewhere...you are such a star at all of this. That cake disappeared faster than you can imagine around here...it was one of their favorite things we have made. They want another one soon. I should just have made them in twos like you did!
Beautiful writeup - I agree, recipes are meant to be fiddled with, changed according to your tastes. I'm glad I went with the prune version though, because I really liked the moistness of the final product.
Wow, both cakes look fantastic! Thanks for taste testing two different versions for us. :) And thanks for baking along with me!
Shari
Agen, Les Pruneaux d'Agen
After Interviewing Pascal Aussignac on 'Cuisinier Gascon' I thought I had to think about what to eat with Armagnac.
In Armagnac with That Rhubarb Tart or Duck Magret, Tasting and Pairing with Denis I wrote about a session I had to discover that.
Serge
'The French Guy from New Jersey'
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