Reminiscing Recipe Columns

10/11/17 Cook’s Corner

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Betty Kaiser

I became a fan of recipe columns as a young mother of three in the early years of the 1960s. Today, I still find it exciting that in this era of so-called hard news, major newspapers from Baton Rouge to San Diego offer readers a respite that everyone can enjoy—recipes and articles that are all about enjoying food preparation and ways to help them.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The cookbook, “Dear S.O.S.: Thirty Years of Recipe Requests,” was written by longtime editor Rose Dosti, former award winning food writer and veteran Los Angeles Times reporter. In her retirement, she has written eight or more books but this was the first. I recently opened it again and I am finding it as inspiring as ever. The L.A. Times published it 25 years ago but for this former Angeleno it brings back wonderful memories of great restaurant’s ideas for home cooked food.

Now called “Culinary S.O.S,” the recipe column that debuted in the Times in 1961 had a long history before that in the Daily Mirror. It originally began in the 1930s. Then, the audience was mostly stay-at-home housewives and their cooking choices were limited by the selection in markets. Out-of-season fresh fruits and vegetables were virtually unavailable. This was before frozen foods were readily available and canned goods were pantry staples used in all kinds of cooking. There was even a Fruit Cocktail Cake that is still a popular potluck dessert today.

Along the way, readers began to write in to S.O.S. and request favorite recipes from popular restaurants or ones they had lost or maybe remembered from a by-gone era. There was an entire news staff that gobbled up the recipes and found answers to their questions. One editor was just the tip of the iceberg. The support staff consisted of an entire L.A. Times based test-kitchen of home economists and writers.

Beginning in the 1970s and into the 1990s Rose Dosti was the “Culinary S.O.S.” editor for the Times readership. She would seek out the city’s best restaurants and include them in her columns. Many of those restaurants are now closed—The Brown Derby, Scandia, The Bistro—but they sure left tasty memories and their creations are part of the L.A. culinary history.

Rose’s tenure at The Times saw big societal changes. First there was a health movement that craved granola, nut burgers and Flourless Chocolate Cake. It is still a popular dessert in gluten free diets. Then, a growing ethnic population added more diversity to the mix. Recipes from the Latino, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean populations were requested and published. Also, more women entered the work force. They were cooking less and needed some insights into current recipes.

Thirty years ago, here in Oregon, I was thrilled to discover The Oregonian newspaper’s Recipe Box. All the years they delivered to Cottage Grove, I clipped many a recipe from their pages. This week I went online and found a Fall Apple and Chicken Salad from 2016. Check it out at: http://recipes.oregonlive.com/. I think you’ll like it.

The L.A. Times continues to put out a weekly food section. Last week it included a whole treatise on “Pie crust 101: Tips and tricks for taking your crust to the next level.” As usual, I picked up a few pointers. I may have been a professional pie maker at Kaiser’s Country Diner but I’m not too old to learn new tricks. Someday I’ll share my foolproof pie crust recipe.

Today’s recipe is for a Flourless Chocolate Cake, described as a dense ‘fallen’ cake made from an aerated chocolate custard. This Martha Stewart microwave recipe is a lighter version of the famous cake from Misto Bakery in Torrance, Calif. The original calls for 8 eggs, 2 pounds of bittersweet chocolate and 1-1/2 cups of butter! Martha says, “Chocolate lovers will adore this dessert. The edges and top develop a delicately crisp crust while the center remains moist and fudgy.”  Enjoy!

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan

 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

 6 large eggs, separating yolks and egg whites

 1/2 cup granulated sugar

 Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Sweetened whipped cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees with the rack in the center. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch Springform pan. Set aside.

Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time, until completely melted. Let cool slightly. Whisk in egg yolks.

 In a large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add granulated sugar, and continue beating until glossy stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture; then gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan. Serve at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar. Serve with whipped cream, if desired. Serves 8

Keep it simple and keep it seasonal! 

Betty Kaiser’s Cook’s Corner is dedicated to sharing a variety of recipes 

that are delicious, family oriented and easy to prepare.