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You are here: Home / brownies / Gluten Free Italian Chocolate Cake with Polenta: OXO Good Grips Egg Beater

Gluten Free Italian Chocolate Cake with Polenta: OXO Good Grips Egg Beater

January 26, 2012 By Laura 26 Comments

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I am mortified by how long it has taken me to tell you about OXO’s new Egg Beater.  Yikes. Here are the facts: OXO sent me one of their new Good Grips Egg Beaters–along with a second to give away to a lucky reader–as part of their Blogger Outreach Program (their Blogger Outreach page is no longer working as of February 2021 so I am not sure if it still exists).  Nothing is required of me save that I review it–the good and the bad– and give a second one away.

And here is the excuse: to give the egg beater a good test I needed a recipe that required egg whites.  The beaters arrived after I made my holiday Meringue Cookies and, the holidays being what they are, I was never again in a situation where I had the time to choose a recipe at my leisure.  I didn’t even whip cream this Christmas, instead serving a cookie tray even for Christmas dinner!  So, now that I am done with excuse making, about this egg beater…

Full disclosure: I have never owned an egg beater.  I have had a stand mixer almost my entire adult life (and my entire childhood) and I only acquired a hand mixer in the last few years.  So to say that I am spoiled for whipping eggs and cream is an understatement.  However, I was excited about the egg beater because it would allow my kids to be more involved in baking in situations I might have reached for the hand mixer.  That is Sammy busy rotating away in the photo above.

For the test recipe I chose a doozy–although I did not realize it at the time.  I might as well have tested it on angel food cake, that’s how many egg whites we were whipping.  If you had ever told me I would whip 11 egg whites to stiffness by hand I would have told you you were smoking something funny.  The recipe–which we loved–is a nearly grainless cake from Gale Gand’s Butter Sugar Flour Eggs: Whimsical Irresistible Desserts, an Italian Chocolate Cake with Polenta.  The egg yolks are beaten or whipped to pale yellow ribbons with sugar and the whites are whipped to stiffness.  Chocolate and butter are melted and little by little all is folded together, with the polenta or cornmeal being folded in last.

The egg beater’s gears work really smoothly, and the stainless steel bridge at the bottom of the beaters allows you to rest the beater on the bottom of the bowl (no small thing when you are whipping that many egg whites!).  The beaters detach easily from the base and are dishwasher safe.  The grip is comfortable, and Sammy (age 5) was able to work the gears and whip the eggs.  She did find it tiring, so we took turns.  As a matter of fact that is the only negative thing I have to say–no matter how amazing an egg beater is, if you are spoiled by electric, it still takes a lot longer and is a lot more work.  Of course it is also a lot less expensive and a lot easier for little kids to handle, the second being the reason it will find a use in my kitchen.  That and the fact that sometimes you do not have a clean whip attachment, in which case this will come in handy.

So how can you win one of these babies?   (Giveaway is now over.)

This recipe has really gotten short shrift while I’ve talked about the egg beater I used to make it! It fantastic–rich, super chocolate-y, and unusual from its hint of cornmeal.  Gand states that cornmeal is an acceptable substitute to polenta, and indeed that is all I had.  I even used coarse, and while the effect was a little jarring, it was not unpleasant.  I would probably prefer fine grain next time.

 

Print
Italian Chocolate Cake with Polenta
Closely adapted from Gale Gand
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: cake
Keyword: chocolate, polenta
Author: TheSpicedLife
Ingredients
  • 16 oz semisweet chocolate chopped (I used a chocolate in the 60% range)
  • 8 oz (2 sticks) butter
  • 11 eggs separated
  • pinch of cream of tartar
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar divided
  • 2 T liquor of choice suggestions: Cognac, brandy, Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Sambuca... I used Starbucks coffee liquor
  • 1/2 cup polenta, cornmeal is ok to sub
  • Confectioners' sugar for dusting
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 300 F. Grease a 9X13 cake pan and then line it with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave, at 50% power in 30 second intervals. Stir well and then set aside to let cool a bit.

  3. Place the egg whites in a large bowl. Make sure that your bowl and beaters are clean and dry. Begin whipping the egg whites--when they are foamy, add a pinch of the cream of tartar. Continue whipping, and when soft peaks have formed, sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over the egg whites. Continue whipping until stiff peaks have formed--be careful not to overwhip and dry the egg whites out. Shake the beaters off.
  4. Place the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar into another large bowl. Whip (you can use the same beater as long as you do the egg whites first) the egg yolks and sugar until they are very pale yellow and ribbons form when the beater is dragged across the surface of the mixture.
  5. Fold the melted chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. When it is almost blended, add the egg whites and fold them in until almost blended. Then sprinkle the liquor and polenta (or cornmeal) on top of the mixture and fold it in. Be careful not to deflate the egg whites, but do fold the mixture until completely blended now. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Spread the top even with a rubber spatula.
  6. Place the cake into the oven. Bake until the center is firm and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out either clean or with just a few crumbs attached, 60-75 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan before slicing. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

 

As always, Amazon affiliate links were used in this post, but only to link to products on Amazon that I would have discussed and linked to anyway.

Filed Under: brownies, cakes, chocolate, eggs, Italian, kids cooking, Tools, whole grains Tagged With: cake, chocolate, cornmeal, egg beater, gluten free, kids baking, polenta, whipped egg whites

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Comments

  1. Kiri W. says

    January 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    First of all – this looks AMAZING! And how cool that it uses polenta!
    I like you on facebook (Kerstin Wolff)

    Reply
  2. Kiri W. says

    January 26, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    I can’t find the other buttons, sorry! Just the RSS feed one…

    Reply
    • Laura says

      January 26, 2012 at 10:48 pm

      The pinterest and twitter buttons? The first is red, the second is grey. Anyone else having problems? They are in the sidebars.

      Reply
  3. Dawn says

    January 26, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    I like the idea of trying polenta in a cake. I definitely want to try this one out. Thanks for posting this one.

    Reply
  4. Chelsea Horn says

    January 27, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    I subscribe to The Spiced Life email updates ! YAY !

    Reply
  5. Chelsea Horn says

    January 27, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    I liked The Spiced Life on Facebook 🙂 So excited you have a Facebook page !

    Reply
  6. Chelsea Horn says

    January 27, 2012 at 4:29 pm

    I already follow The Spiced Life on Twitter and SO EXCITED to see you followed me back 🙂

    Reply
  7. Gina says

    January 28, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Didn’t realize you were on FB….I shared your link on my wall. Had no idea what Pinterest was, but I checked it out and I like that format…it’s like an encyclopedia…easy to go to. I refuse to do Twitter…sorry. Just like I refuse to do texting….too old fashioned. And now I have your emails in my mailbox….again didn’t realize I could do that. Have time to check my mail every day…sometimes I only get to your blog once or twice a week. Love looking at the desserts cause looking is calorie free! I’ve lost 38 pounds…..looking for lots of veggie, fruits, lean meats, low carbs, no sauce recipes. Got any of those? 🙂

    Reply
  8. Amanda says

    January 29, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    I subscribe via email

    Reply
  9. Amanda says

    January 29, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    I also like you on facebook. Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Meghan Finley says

    January 29, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    I like you on fb

    Reply
  11. Meghan Finley says

    January 29, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    I follow @immortalb4

    Reply
  12. Marie says

    January 30, 2012 at 7:37 am

    The cake sounds so yummy! I have only heard about this egg beater, but from your pictures it looks quite fun. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Linda S. says

    January 30, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    There was a restaurant in Philadelphia that used to serve chocolate polenta cake; I always wanted to try it. Now I can. I follow you on twitter: ljskop.

    Reply
  14. Melissa Shipman says

    January 31, 2012 at 11:03 am

    Hi! I’m new, but I follow you on twitter. I’d love an egg beater!

    Reply
    • Melissa Shipman says

      January 31, 2012 at 11:04 am

      @MelissaShipman

      Reply
  15. Melissa Shipman says

    January 31, 2012 at 11:06 am

    I also follow you on pinterest! (Melissa Nicole)

    Reply
  16. Melissa Shipman says

    January 31, 2012 at 11:07 am

    And I like you on facebook.

    Reply
  17. Linda Herrera says

    January 31, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    I liked you on Facebook and I love the recipe! Thanks for the opportunity! 🙂

    Reply
  18. Jessica says

    February 4, 2012 at 4:51 am

    I like The Spiced Life on facebook!

    Reply
  19. Amanda says

    February 10, 2012 at 1:55 am

    I follow you on twitter @ampbeauty

    Reply
  20. Jeane says

    February 10, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    I liked you on facebook 🙂

    Reply
  21. Jeane says

    February 10, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    Oh, and I’m following you on pinterest 🙂

    Reply
  22. leila says

    February 10, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    “Like” you on FB, but have loved the Spiced Life for years…does that count for any extra chances? 😉

    Reply
  23. Sharon says

    January 28, 2014 at 6:46 pm

    This looks amazing…I recently went gluten free, so this is something I will be trying. I liked you on Facebook.

    Reply
    • Laura says

      January 28, 2014 at 9:00 pm

      Thanks!!! And let me know how you like the cake!

      Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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