Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Special Treat..Gooey Chocolate Cakes



Throughout this pregnancy I have been craving nothing but sweets which is odd for me. I'm the type of person who could have Halloween candy sitting around until Easter and never touch it. But a bag of potato chips, forget it! Gone in a day!

So when thinking about Valentine's Day, I decided to bake a dessert. I went in search of easy ideas (remember, I'm not a baker), and got a suggestion to make
this recipe from the blog Reservations not Required. It looked easy enough and sounded delicious. I ended up making it a week late, but it was worth the wait. Make sure you eat this dessert warm. Jon wished we had some vanilla ice cream to go with it - I agree!

Ingredients

  • 1/3 c all purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder; I used Ghiardelli
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 5 oz bittersweet chocolate; I used Ghiardelli. 4 oz coarsely chopped, 1 oz finely chopped
  • 1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 egg yolk at room temperature
  • 6 tbsp sugar
  • Added: powdered sugar for serving
Directions
  • Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
  • Butter (or spray) a 6-muffin pan; sprinkle the cups with flour and tap off the excess. Put the pan on a baking sheet.
  • Sift the flour, cocoa, and salt together
  • Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Put the 4 oz of coarsely chopped chocolate and all of the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally just until they are melted (took about 4 minutes). You don't want the butter and chocolate to separate. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until they are homogeneous
  • Add the sugar and whisk until well blended
  • Add the dry ingredients and using the whisk, stir (don't beat) them into the eggs.
  • Little by little, using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate/butter mixture.
  • Divide the batter evenly amongst the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the top of each.
  • Bake the cakes for 13 minutes exactly - there is no way to test them as the inside stays liquid.
  • Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a cooling rack for exactly 3 minutes.
  • Line a cutting board with a silicone mat, parchment paper, or wax paper. Lift the cakes out of the muffin pan and set on the board. I was able to easily do this without flipping the pan, as I thought I'd have to do.

I served them sprinkled with the powdered sugar.
These little cakes were so rich and delicious, and not too sweet. We both loved them and I would definitely make them again.

Print this post

1 comment:

  1. These look quite fantastic! The perfect Valentine's Day treat.

    ReplyDelete