Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingrid Michaelson has been one of my favorite musicians for quite some time.  My husband was looking through the paper and found this recipe along with an article about her.  I guess this is one of her favorite recipes to make for parties.  This chocolate cake is so much different than any other chocolate cake.  The exterior ends up being kind of crunchy and the interior is like a very fudgy brownie.  This is always a hit when I make it too.  It doesn't end up looking very pretty, which is why I put strawberries on top.

You Will Need:

7 ounces really good semisweet chocolate (45-50% cocoa)
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar, divided
4 eggs, separated
Fresh fruit for topping, optional
powdered sugar, optional

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler.  (I always put mine in the microwave on half power at 30 second intervals...works great!)

2. In a separate bowl, stir together half the sugar and four egg yolks.  Add this to melted chocolate concoction.

3.  Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites; slowly add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form.  (Usually this works great for me, but my electric mixer was broken and they never formed stiff peaks...but hey it still turned out just fine!)
4. Fold mixture into chocolate. Pour into greased 9 inch cake pan (which you can remove later) or pie pan if you just want to serve it from the dish.

5. Bake 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few wet crumbs on it.  Cool 30 minutes before removing from the pan or topping.  Dust with powdered sugar or top with fresh fruit.