Cranberry Brie Pull Apart Loaf

We don't have parties very often, but I just made this for a winter tea. It's appropriate anytime, but lovely for the Thanksgiving to New Years holiday stretch. It is beautiful and delicious. A bit of a technical challenge, but not much in the way of complexity. Quantities are flexible.

1 round or oval boule or sour dough loaf
1/3 c whole cranberry sauce (could be apple slices for RH) [I just made a small amount with equal parts water, sugar, and cranberries]
5 T butter

1-2 T honey
8-10 oz Brie (it's easy to find kosher brands now, for whatever reason) - sliced thin.
a few sprigs of rosemary, chopped, plus a few sprigs for garnish

Thyme - chopped or ground, maybe a teaspoon.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the loaf in a criss-cross grid, leaving the bottom intact. Make sure the knife is sharp - if the bread is dense, this is hard. One recipe said to do is diagonally, which might be easier.

Melt the butter with honey, rosemary, and thyme.

Setting the sliced loaf on a tin foil base, on your baking tin - pour about half of the melted butter in the crevices and over the top so it soaks in.

Poke the brie slices in the cuts, in both directions. It's going to melt, so don't worry about it being perfect.

Pour, or by hand, stuff cooked cranberries in the slots. Pour the rest of the cranberry sauce and the butter over the top.

Bake until the brie melts, about 15 minutes. Don't overbake or it's really hard to cut the bottom. 

It's nice on a pedestal cake server. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.

Use a serrated spatula and pull!

This is gorgeous! And delicious!

There was a lot leftover and I served it room temperature at a kiddush, and people enjoyed it that way, too. But hot and gooey is the goal.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I made these for a June shabbat when we were all together in Chestertown when Noa was a wee one. Big hit, and Zach asked for them a few weeks later. I happily obliged.

Once you assemble all the ingredients, which is a bit of a scavenger hunt, these are fun to roll. They make a delicious and beautiful presentation. This is based on https://cookieandkate.com/fresh-spring-rolls-recipe/ , this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUO2PuGu9DQ&ab_channel=AGlobalKitchen, and https://natashaskitchen.com/fresh-spring-rolls/ but watch a few videos to get different ideas of the basic techniques.

You'll need about a 12-16 rice paper wrappers, found in the Asian section of big supermarkets. The sauces keep, so you don't have to make the whole package. 

Cook the rice noodles -  just submerge them in boiling water for a few minutes, and drain. While they are cooling, prep your fillings. You can lay them in piles on a tray.

• Herb leaves: basil, mint, or other herbs of choice. Be generous.
• lettuce leaves. I found mini-romaine, which was perfect. Spinach would be good.
• grated carrot, either a bag, or use a cool tool. I actually have one, called a julienne peeler. You can also just slice thin.
• purple cabbage, sliced very thin
• English cucumber, seeded and sliced thin
• avocado, sliced thin, if you have a ripe one
• thin sliced daikon or red radish
• slivered jalapeno if you like more heat
• rice vermicelli or plain rice
• strips of spiced tofu are a good addition to amp up the protein.

We liked having two dipping sauces. Be sure to put dips out in a few smaller bowls.

Peanut Hoisin Sauce:

In a big jar, add

100g or 1/3c hoisin sauce (vegetarian)

30g -  2 T peanut butter

3-5g/1 small clove grated garlic 

3-5g about1/2 T grated ginger

30g or 2 T rice vinegar

5g or 1 t sesame oil

30g or 2 T water

Whisk to combine.

Traditional Fish Sauce from Natasha.

• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 to 2 tsp chili garlic sauce
• 1 garlic clove, grated or minced
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp shredded carrot

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. For serving, pour into a few smaller bowls. This makes a lot.

Assembling:

Rice Paper needs just a quick dip in a curved plate of water. Then move it to a tray, and add the rice noodles and the other ingredients. Try to get some of the pretty herb leaves on what will be the bottom so when you roll each one, you can see them. Best to watch a video.

Do not stack them. They stick to each other! You can leave them at room temperature for an hour or two.

 Figure on folks eating 2 or 3, or even 4, depending on what else you are serving.

Naomi Klayman's Layered Fruit Salad

I often suggest to people, when they ask what to bring to a meal, to bring fruit salad. It's a lot of work to make!

Naomi brought this, and it was ingenious. The colors and contrast obviously make it beautiful, but the stripes are extra pretty.

She came up with the technique of holding the bowl horizontally, and layering it that way.

If you use a flat or slightly curved bowl/platter, you can do it directly. But her technique is a lot of fun.

I like "pretty food". This presentation qualifies! 

Ricette Fresche's Potato Spinach Cheese Tortilla

Stuffed Potato Cheese Thing!

For vegetarian meals, I miss the dinner entrée being a focal point. This one is beautiful. It requires many steps, but not hard ones, and is an elegant presentation. I haven't come up with the right word in English. Ricette Fresche is an Italian YouTube channel; she calls it an omelet, along the lines of a Spanish Tortilla, also made in a fry pan on the stovetop. This one doesn't have onions, but you could add them. It's pretty flexible.

She doesn't have a website with the recipes, so you need to watch her videos and follow the steps. Not very efficient, so I've narrated the process here.

2+ pounds potatoes (a kilo, basically)
1 lb fresh, washed spinach

fried onions (optional) - to be layered in with the spinach, or caramelized and added on top
clove garlic
2 eggs
1 oz parmesan, grated
4 oz grated hard cheese (I used Gouda, but can be most any kind.)
* ~1 c breadcrumbs (can be less, it's to taste - stale challah is good!) Note that you spread the  breadcrumbs at three different times, so don't put it all in the mixture at the first step
olive oil
salt, pepper, nutmeg

hot sauce for eating

Boil the potatoes very thoroughly. When they're cool, hand peel them - the peels slip off.

Meanwhile, chop the spinach. Add oil to a large frying pan, and add the spinach and garlic, stirring until it wilts. Remove the garlic and put it in a strainer and push out the excess liquid.

In a large bowl, mash the boiled potatoes. Add two eggs, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Stir, add parmesan and and about half the breadcrumbs.

In the large fry pan that the spinach was in, place a parchment paper disk, spread it with olive oil, and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Spread half the potato mixture on it, using your hands to smooth it down. Layer the spinach on top, with the grated cheese [and fried onions]. Spread the second half of the potato mixture, evening with wet hands. Add oil on top, and the rest of the breadcrumbs.

Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes. On the induction, I used 4.

Uncover, set a plate in, and invert. This is tricky! Pull the parchment off the top, set it in the pan, and slip the omelet on it, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Get a nice round tray ready! This is Shabbat dinner material.

Blueberry Sour Ceam Lemon Cake

This is similar to the cake I baked for Sender's bris. It is richer, and easier - no weird ingredients. I bake this in two cake pans, and it's a showstopper. So delicious. It's straight from the internet, by Nellie Bellie. You will need lots of lemons!

2 3/4 c flour (part whole wheat flour is fine) + 2 T for mixing in with the fresh blueberries

1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 c butter (2 sticks)
2 c sugar
4 large eggs
3  T lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)
2 T lemon zest (about 2 large lemons)
1 t vanilla
1 c sour cream (8 oz)
3 c blueberries (1 1/2 pints)

Icing

1 T butter, melted
1 1/2 C powdered sugar

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon
pinch salt

Thin sliced almonds (thin, oval shape, not matchsticks)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two cake pans, bundt and/or tube pans. I use Bakers Joy spray.

In sufficient size bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. (You will add this to the bigger bowl.)

In a large bowl, or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high for about 3 minutes.

Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Continue beating, adding a bit of the flour mixture to the egg mixture in intervals, a little at a time.

Add the lemon juice, zest, vanilla, and sour cream. Gently stir these into the batter with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Gently fold in the floured blueberries.

Spread the batter into the prepared bundt/tube pans.

 
Bake for 55 minutes, check for doneness. If a toothpick in the center doesn't come back clean, put the cake back in for another 10-15 minutes. You can cover it with an oven-proof vented glass lid or tin foil.

Icing

Beat the powdered sugar, lemon juice, salt, and zest together.
Slowly beat in the melted butter into the sugar and lemon combo. Beat until combined well. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Let cool a bit until the desired consistency for pouring.
Pour over your cake, sprinkle the almond slices, and let cool.

S'more Meringues

Shula had this idea and we found a fun recipe by Jamie Geller. It worked perfectly. We did have leftover melted chocolate and graham cracker crumbs, which we combined and spread out thin. Here's our double recipe.

4 egg whites
2/3 c sugar
1 c graham cracker crumbs (smash in a bag if you don't have them already ground.) - for Passover, sugar and matzah meal would probably be good
6 oz Hershey's chocolate bars

Heat oven to 215 degrees. Spread a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. These don't spread much at all, so just leaving a little space is enough.

Beat the egg whites, slowly adding the sugar, until stiff an glossy.

Drop a tablespoon of batter and pull up the spoon so it has a nice twisty top. Shula took a butter knife and made shapes and designs.

Bake for 90 minutes. Leave in the oven overnight if you do these in the evening.

Melt the chocolate on the induction burner set at 2. Stir while melting; it goes fast.

Set the cracker crumbs on a small plate. It's fine if there are some bigger pieces. Dip each meringue in the melted chocoate and then set it on the crumbs. Put them on their sides to harden. You can refrigerate.

For Passover, just leave off the crumb layer, or try sugared matzah meal for some crunch.

Very pretty! 

Almond Horns - Mandelhörnchen

For Zeke's bar mitzvah, I wanted to bake something primarily for Zeke. I told him he didn't have to share his goodies with anyone. (For Ezra's, since we were a small group and we hung out at their house, I baked more generic things.) Zeke did share them, but received his own private stash and was quite pleased about it.

Since the Hausmanns are yekkehs on both sides, and indeed the boys already have German citizenship, I picked this treat, mandelhörnchen. I read about them in Smitten Kitchen, but ultimately went with the German version, video linked above. It uses marzipan, which I had in the house and wanted to try. 

There are many discussions of the merits of almond paste vs. marzipan. I took the sprinkles idea from Smitten Kitchen. These are not something Eric ever mentioned, but they are German classics.

This is a European metric recipe translated into American measures, so a little odd. 

7.05 oz marzipan (200 grams)
0.89 cups almond meal or almond flour (100 grams)
1 egg white for the dough
0.83 cups confectioners sugar (= powdered sugar) - (100 grams)
2 t lemon juice
1 egg-white for dipping
4 oz sliced almonds (100 grams)
1 cup dark chocolate (more or less) - (180 grams)

Put the marzipan, almond flour, confectioners sugar, egg white, and lemon juice into a bowl and mix it all together.
With wet fingers, shape 6 Crescents from the dough. (these would be huge. I did 9 and would go smaller still).
Dip each crescent first into the egg white and then turn it in the almond slices until it's well covered.
Set on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the almond crescents for 10 to 15 minutes or a little longer if you want them more crisp.

Let them cool and in the meantime, melt the chocolate on the induction Melt setting in a frying pan.
Once the almond horns have cooled completely, dip the ends of the horns into the chocolate. [Sprinkle on the jimmies!]
Let the chocolate set and then enjoy.

Not bad for a first try, and they were well-received!

CakeDoodle Birthday Tiered Cake

Today was Eyal and Nadav's 4th Birthday. They were so excited.

I baked a cake from King Arthur, a classic Depression era recipe with cocoa, flour, vinegar, baking soda - and no oil or butter, and brought it over to the Henry School Garden where their pizza party was. 

Made up for the missing butter with the frosting!

Divide the batter into two small spring forms. I did 5" and 7", but I suggest 8" for the bigger layer. A one inch edge isn't much surface to work on. Nomi called it a showstopper. It was fun. The cake and frosting are quite yummy, but the presentation seals the deal. 

The Cake:

1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa, Dutch-process or natural*
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1 T cider vinegar or white vinegar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 c  water or milk

Heat oven to 350. Spray two springforms well, 8" and 5" recommended.

In large bowl, mix dry ingredients, using a strainer for the cocoa and baking soda. Whisk well.

In a small bowl, mix the liquid ingredients. Add to the dry, and stir until fully mixed.

Split the batter between the two pans, and bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The smaller may finish first.

Turning 7! With milk cocktails!

The frosting is classic birthday cake! And great for sprinkles. If there’s extra frosting, lucky you! It’s a dip.

1 stick softened butter

3 c. confectioners sugar

1 t. vanilla

2-3 T milk

Use a giant bowl- the powdered sugar is likely to go all over. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the ingredients and beat until spreading consistency. With confectioners sugar it's best to not add all the liquid at once. Start with 2 T and add the third as needed.

When cake is cool, put the larger layer on a serving plate. Frost the top and center the smaller tier on top. Frost away, and go heavy on the sprinkles!

This served a lot of people, cut into small pieces. Nadav told one of the moms that the special ingredient in this birthday cake was LOVE. Sure was! Eyal was thrilled. He kept saying "It's SO good!"

Reena Spicehandler's Apple Dapple Cake

This super rich cake is from the 60s. 

They were devoured! Even by Shula - who doesn't especially like cake but LOVED the frosting.

1 1/2 c. oil
2 c.white sugar
3 eggs
3 c. peeled, chopped apple (doesn't need to be too fine - some visible apple chunks are nice)
3 c. flour
l t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 t. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts (also doesn't need to be too fine)

Cream oil, sugar, and eggs
Add flour, salt, and baking soda
Beat well and add remaining ingredients - this is a very heavy batter.

Bake at 350 for one hour [in greased pan like a bundt or tube] - I used Convection with a large pan and small pan for Thanksgiving cakes. 30 minutes for a small cake, more like 45 for a bigger.

Glaze

3/4 stick butter or margarine
1 c light or dark brown sugar firmly packed
1/3 c milk

Boil 10-15 minutes (until thick). This takes patience! Let it cool for a minute or two before pouring over the cake. Let the icing sit on the top of the cake(s) and dribble down. When it's really thick it hardens into caramel on the cake. 

In the original version, you pour the glaze into the cake while still in the pan. I prefer to drizzle the icing on cooled cakes.

Cinnamon Star Coffee Cake/Challah (or Pesto Star)

This is a King Arthur recipe - It's a lot of steps but fun. I baked one with Shula and Amira for our New Years Eve 2022/Shabbat Dinner. Obviously dairy. In this case the filling ran a bit, so a better seal matters. There are lots of videos to review the cut/twist steps.

The dough would be easy to double. It's such an impressive bread.

To do a six-pointed star, assumedly you can cut each quarter into thirds, and have six points instead of eight.

Dough
2 c (240g) Flour
1/2 cup (46g) dried potato flakes
1/4 cup (28g) nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 cup + 2 to 4 tablespoons (198g to 227g) lukewarm water, enough to make a soft, smooth dough
4 T (57g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 t vanilla extract (omit if you're baking a savory star, like with pesto)
2 t instant yeast
2 T (25g) granulated sugar (cut to 1 T. for Savory Star)
1 t (6g) salt

Filling
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 c (99g) granulated sugar
1 T cinnamon

    or

Pesto (1/2 cup)

Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft, smooth dough. It is a rich dough and doesn't need a lot of working. Starting with a mixer and finishing by hand, in the bowl, seems to work fine.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 60 minutes, until it's nearly doubled in bulk.

To shape the loaf: Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, cover the balls, and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.

On a lightly greased or floured work surface, roll one piece of dough into a 10" circle. Place the circle on a piece of parchment, brush a thin coat of beaten egg on the surface, then evenly sprinkle with 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar (or pesto), leaving 1/4" of bare dough around the perimeter.

Roll out a second circle the same size as the first, and place it on top of the filling-covered circle. Repeat the layering process — egg, cinnamon sugar, dough circle — leaving the top circle bare. [Pinch the perimeter so the filling doesn't burst out as much.]

Place a 2 1/2" to 3" round cutter in the center of the dough circle as a guide. With a sharp knife, cut the circle into 16 equal strips, from the cutter to the edge, through all the layers.

Using two hands, pick up two adjacent strips, pull up & out and twist them away from each other twice so that the top side is facing up again. Repeat with the remaining strips of dough so that you end up with eight pairs of strips.

Pinch the pairs of strips together to create a star-like shape with eight points.

Transfer the star on the parchment to a baking sheet. Cover the star and let it rise until it becomes noticeably puffy, about 45 minutes.


While the star is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.


Brush the star with a thin coat of the beaten egg. Bake it for 12 to 15 minutes, until it's nicely golden with dark brown cinnamon streaks; the center should register 200°F on a digital thermometer.


Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.

King Arthur 2020 Recipe of the Year: Pan Pizza

Crust
2 c flour (use 1/4 whole wheat flour)
3/4 t salt
½ t instant yeast or active dry yeast
3/4 cup (170g) lukewarm water
1 T olive oil + 1½ T  olive oil for the pan

Topping
6 ounces  mozzarella, grated (about 1 1/4 c, loosely packed)*- can be low-fat
1/3 to ½ c tomato sauce or pizza sauce, homemade or store-bought

toppings to put on after about 10 minutes: sliced olives, sliced peppers, onions, and/or mushrooms if you like
Optional: freshly grated hard cheese and fresh herbs for sprinkling on top after baking.

Spray a large bowl with oil. Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Place the flour, salt, yeast, water, and 1 T of the olive oil in the bowl.

Stir everything together to make a shaggy, sticky mass of dough with no dry patches of flour. This should take about 1 minute by hand, using a spoon or spatula. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to gather the dough into a rough ball; cover the bowl.

After 5 minutes, uncover the bowl and reach a bowl scraper or your wet hand down between the side of the bowl and the dough, as though you were going to lift the dough out. Instead of lifting, stretch the bottom of the dough up and over its top. Repeat three more times, turning the bowl 90° each time. This process of four stretches, which takes the place of kneading, is called a fold. 

To keep track put four of something next to the dough bowl (like bottle caps), and move one over each time.  


Re-cover the bowl, and after 5 minutes wet your hands and do another fold. Wait 5 minutes and repeat; then another 5 minutes, and do a fourth and final fold. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest, undisturbed, for 40 minutes. Then refrigerate it for a minimum of 12 hours, or up to 72 hours. It'll rise slowly as it chills, developing flavor; this long rise will also add flexibility to your schedule.

About 2-3 hours before you want to serve your pizza, prepare your pan. Pour 1 ½ tablespoons (18g) olive oil into a well-seasoned cast iron skillet that’s 10” to 11” diameter across the top, and about 9” across the bottom. Spread it up the sides to the top, as the dough will rise during baking. Heavy, dark cast iron will give you a superb crust.

Transfer the dough to the pan and turn it once to coat both sides with the oil. After coating the dough in oil, press the dough to the edges of the pan, dimpling it using the tips of your fingers in the process. The dough may start to resist and shrink back; that’s OK, just cover it and let it rest for about 15 minutes, then repeat the dimpling/pressing. At this point the dough should reach the edges of the pan; if it doesn’t, give it one more 15-minute rest before dimpling/pressing a third and final time.



Cover the crust and let it rise for 2 hours at room temperature. The fully risen dough will look soft and pillowy and will jiggle when you gently shake the pan.

[About 30 minutes before baking, place one rack at the bottom of the oven and one toward the top (about 4" to 5" from the top heating element).] Preheat the Breville oven to 435°F - it heats up in 2-3 minutes. (when baked at 450, it takes only 12 minutes. This might slow it down a little.) 

When you’re ready to bake the pizza, sprinkle about three-quarters of the mozzarella (a scant 1 cup) evenly over the crust. Cover the entire crust, no bare dough showing; this will yield caramelized edges. Dollop small spoonfuls of the sauce over the cheese; laying the cheese down first like this will prevent the sauce from seeping into the crust and making it soggy. Sprinkle on the remaining mozzarella.

In the Breville it was done and very browned in 15 minutes! If you want to add vegetable toppings, try adding them at about 10 minutes. Rotate halfway through.

Remove the pizza from the oven and place the pan on a heatproof surface. Carefully run a table knife or spatula between the edge of the pizza and side of the pan to prevent the cheese from sticking as it cools. Let the pizza cool very briefly; as soon as you feel comfortable doing so, carefully transfer it from the pan to a cooling rack or cutting surface. This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy.



Serve the pizza anywhere from medium-hot to warm. Kitchen shears or a large pair of household scissors are both good tools for cutting this thick pizza into wedges.

A chopped can of anchovies is a good addition.

Gluten-Free Fairtrade Chocolate Covered Strawberries/Figs

These are fun and beautiful. A specialty of Laurie Hertz.

1 lb strawberries, washed and patted dry
(or another small fruit, like fresh figs or prunes)
1 chocolate bar (Equal Exchange Fairtrade preferred)
3 oz parve chocolate chips

Break chocolate bar and place in double boiler over boiling water along with the chips. For some reasons, the bar alone is a little too thin. The chips seem to have a thicker consistency. 

With an induction cooktop, but the chocolate directly in a small frying pan and set to 2 or 3. It will take 5-10 minutes to melt. 

Put a sheet of parchment paper on a flat tin. Dip each strawberry, holding it by the green stem. Shake off excess chocolate.

Set on the wax paper. If you  have extra chocolate, you can dip matzah, prunes, or add slivered almonds + raisins or craisins and make "haystacks". Or just dip matzah!

This was enough to dip 1 lb of strawberries + 1 lb of fresh figs.

It takes about 20 minutes for the chocolate to harden. You can speed it up by refrigerating.

Eyal dipping strawberries - last week of 4!

Chocolate Mousse Pie/Torte

This recipe was a Baker's Chocolate ad in a magazine decades ago. I noticed it would easily adapt to Passover, which it does. You basically whip up a big batch of chocolate mousse and bake half of it. It solidifies and creates a base, and when it cools, you poor in the rest of the mouse, chilled. It is not a hard cake to make, and you could think about making it any old time. Also, while not vegan (8 eggs!), it is gluten-free.

1 pkg. (8 sqs.) semi-sweet chocolate or 8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. water or coffee
8 eggs, separated (use clean eggs with no cracks in shells)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla (substitute cinnamon on Passover if you can't find vanilla)
2/3 c. sugar

Heat chocolate and water/coffee in a large glass bowl in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring until smooth. If you've switched to an induction, put in the chocolate and water, using a large sauce pan set at 1 or 2, and be patient. Some have a melt setting.

Stir in egg yolks; add vanilla. 

Beat egg whites in a large mixing bowl gradually adding the sugar,  until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes.

Stir a small amount of the egg white mixture  into chocolate mixture to lighten it; then fold the chocolate mixture into remaining whites.

Pour 4 cups into a well-buttered 9" springform pan. Chill remaining mixture. (you can make it in a pie pan but I think the spring form gives a better presentation.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until just set. Cool slightly; then chill 1 hour. Center will fall, forming shell.

Spoon chilled chocolate mousse into chilled shell. Chill 3 hours (or overnight.) [Sometimes the mousse just doesn't set; then it is a chocolate sauce!]

It's a cake that could use some garnish - grated pistachios, a dollop of whipped
cream if it's not a meat meal, some berries. Or maybe all three.

Also - this is really good frozen. You could intentionally freeze it, but for us we (surprisingly) had some leftover once and discovered it is great frozen.

Turns out the original recipe, though much more complicated, is Maida Heatter's, in the New York Times, a cake guru of the 70's-80s. Helen Feinberg makes some of her recipes. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/05/21/82224385.html?pageNumber=430  The main difference is she says to beat the egg yolks before adding them to the chocolate mixture.