Maybe that's how they stay slim forever--mix up the chocolate cake, get a gloppy mess, then throw it out without eating it! I'm sorry your recipe didn't work. That's a lot of expensive chocolate to toss in the trash. I hope you were able to salvage it somehow? This is the recipe I use most often. It's from Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cake Bible, and it has three ingredients--one of which is the butter they left out of the one you tried. It's easy--even though the instructions are longish--and it always comes out great. Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, room temperature* 1/2 pound (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature 6 large eggs, room temperature * Beranbaum's note: Two of my favorites are Lindt Courante and Tobler extra bittersweet. If using Courante chocolate, add 1/3 cup (2.25 ounces/66 grams) sugar to the eggs while beating. If using extra bittersweet, add 3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces/37 grams) sugar. Heidi note: I added 3 tablespoons superfine sugar to the eggs when using the 70% Sharffen Berger. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly butter a 8-inch springform pan; line the bottom with buttered parchment or wax paper. Wrap of outside of the pan with a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil to prevent seepage. In a large metal bowl set over a pan of hot, not simmering, water (bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) combine the chocolate and butter and let stand, stirring occasionally, until smooth and melted. (The mixture can be melted in the microwave on high power, stirring every 15 seconds. Remove when there are still a few lumps of chocolate and stir until fully melted). In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water heat the eggs, stirring constantly to prevent curdling, until just warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat, using the whisk beater, until triple in volume and soft peaks form when the beater is raised, about 5 minutes. (To insure maximum volume if using a hand mixer, beat the eggs over simmering water until they are hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat until cool.) IMPORTANT: Be sure to add the beaten eggs to the chocolate mixture and not the chocolate to the eggs. This will insure a moist airy texture. Using a large wire whisk or rubber spatula, fold 1/2 of the eggs into the chocolate mixture until almost incorporated. Fold in the remaining eggs until just blended and no streaks remain. Finish by using a rubber spatula to ensure that the heavier mixture at the bottom is incorporated. Scrape into the prepared springform pan and smooth with the spatula. Set the pan in the larger pan and surround it with 1-inch very hot water; place on center of middle oven rack. NOTE: Baking in a water bath keeps the texture creamy throughout. Bake 5 minutes. Cover loosely with a piece of buttered aluminum foil and bake 10 additional minutes. NOTE: The cake will look soft, but this is as it should be. Remove from oven and let the cake cool on a wire rack for 45 minutes. After cake has cooled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours. To Unmold: Have ready a serving plate and a flat plate at least 8-inches in diameter, covered with plastic wrap. Wipe the sides of the pan with a hot, damp towel. Run a thin metal spatula around the side of the cake and release the sides of the springform pan. Place the plastic-wrapped plate on top and invert. Wipe the bottom of the pan with a hot, damp towel. Remove the bottom of the pan and the parchment. Reinvert onto the serving plate. Chocolate Torte will store up to 2 weeks refrigerated. Do not freeze because it changes the texture. When ready to serve, bring to room temperature. Cut into narrow wedges with a thin sharp knife that has been dipped in hot water. When this cake is served at room temperature, you get a rush of chocolate from the moment it enters your mouth. The full flavor of chocolate can best be appreciated only in a softened state. (A chocolate bar, for example, has to start melting in the mouth before the flavor comes through.) Makes 16 servings.

Nope I dont believe it had gone bad. I've had trouble melting "chips" too - they seems to have a stabilizer or something in them so they keep their shape when other chocolate would have melted. When I've successfully melted white chips in the past, I microwaved them on super low until they just started to soften, then let them sit for a moment or two, there seems to be residual heating, then stir them around again and heat on super low again. Hope that helps! Alexa

I like the world peace cookies. World peace Cookies Excerpted from Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan. Makes about 36 cookies I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I've never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark there's cocoa in the dough and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they're salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It's the salt Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound. When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre's cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness. * 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour * 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda * 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature * 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar * 1/4 cup sugar * 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt * 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract * 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips 1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. 2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more. 3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate. 4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.) Getting Ready to Bake: 5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. 6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them. 7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Ah, here's another good use for an electric skillet. I don't care for white chocolate but I do melt milk or dark chocolates in small heat-proof bowls (those Pyrex custard cups work well) set in the skillet on lowest setting and leave uncovered. After about 20-30 minutes, stir and check the progress. When nearly melted, stir until the chocolate is completely smooth. This isn't the fastest method but you don't have to baby sit the chocolate while it melts... just leave it and forget it for a while. I shop at a candy-making store and this is how they melt the chocolate -- small Pyrex cups with various chocolates, left alone to melt. When ready, they just remove a bowl and spread or drizzle on the goodies, then put it back in the skillet to keep it warm and melted until ready for the next batch.