The Chocolate You Need

Melting, warm, intense, luscious...do you want me to go on?

Here’s a surprise for you all: I once was a snob about desserts.

You’d think I was a more open-minded sort about sweets, I’m sure. And yes, I welcome in the broken, smooshed, uneven-crumbed, slightly burnt, tough-crusted desserts. Serve me a RingDing? An Entenmann’s golden fudge cake? Give me two of each, please. The chewy, chocolate chip cookies from the ShopRite grocery store, with that hard-to-place artificial flavor? I’ll eat ‘em.

But a molten chocolate cake? Puh-leeze. Is it still the 1980s?

It just shows to go you that we should always listen to Rachel Vindman. If she says her family loves molten chocolate cakes, it’s time to reconsider my snobbery.

What was I thinking, Rachel? Of course you were right! The molten chocolate cake may be the ideal chocolate cake. You long-time, unwavering lovers of the cake can mock me: I deserve it.

A molten chocolate cake recipe should be in everyone’s arsenal. It has everything going for it: It’s incredibly simple to make and the result is a warm, gooey, intensely chocolate cake. It goes well with ice cream and raspberry sauce. It can be fancy! It can be just something you and your loved ones eat in hushed silence, just enjoying the pure, chocolatey company of the dessert.

Thank you Rachel. It seems, that even in dessert, ‘right matters.’

Below is my take on the molten chocolate cake I made with Rachel Vindman on the latest episode of my podcast The Secret Life of Cookies. Give a bake and have a listen!

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Raspberry Sauce

What You’ll Need:

6 ounces bestest quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.

½ cup (1 stick) butter

¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon espresso powder or cinnamon (optional, but both enhance chocolate nicely)

2 large EGGS

2 large egg YOLKS

Equipment:

4 ramekin dishes or a muffin pan (Makes 6 lava cakes if using a muffin tin)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

1. You can make the raspberry sauce a week in advance. Or just before you make the cakes. Or somewhere in between. Keep refrigerated.

2. Spray the heck out of the ramekins with Baker’s Joy or use 6 muffin cups. Or butter, if you don’t have Baker’s Joy. (If using muffin cups in a 12-count muffin tin, use the 6 center cups.)  Dust the ramekins or muffin tins with a bit of cocoa powder because you are fancy.

3. Whisk together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, salt and espresso powder if using.

4. Break up the chocolate. Cut up the butter. Put them in a bowl together. Microwave first with a 30-second blast, stir, then 10-second blasts with a stir, etc.  until almost entirely melted. Stir to complete the melting process.

5. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks together. You want the mixture to smooth and uniform in color.

6. Pour the egg mixture and the flour mixture into the bowl with the chocolate and butter. Gently mix together.

7. If using ramekins, place them on a baking sheet, so it’s easier to take them in and out of the oven.

8. Spoon the mixture evenly into the ramekins or muffin cups.

9. Bake for 11 to 15 minutes, if using ramekins. Muffin cup version will cook faster…8 to 11 minutes. You know your oven best. Do not run away from the kitchen now, or you will end up with dense chocolate cake with no molten chocolate lava in sight. They are done when the sides of the cake look solid, the top will still be soft, and still slightly shiny. Remove the cakes from the oven.

10. Using ramekins? Put a pretty plate, or at least not the one with the chips out of the edge (you will be serving your glamorous dessert on this plate.) on top of the ramekin. Invert the plate and ramekin, lift the ramekin off and VOILA.

    Using muffin tins? Scoot a knife around the edge of each. Use a spoon or offset spatula to gently ease these out and place upside down on the plate. Try not to puncture the center!

11. Drizzle raspberry sauce on the plate, garnish with fresh raspberries. Vanilla ice cream wouldn’t be going too far in my book. In fact, it’s a destination I approve of.

Raspberry Sauce

(This keeps for 5-7 days. It even freezes nicely.)

What You’ll Need:

12 ounce bag frozen, unsweetened raspberries

½ cup white sugar

3 tablespoons water

You will need a microwavable bowl, a sieve of some sort, another clean bowl and a silicon spatula or spoon.

What You’ll Do:

1. Defrost the raspberries

2. With a sieve positioned over a bowl, pour in as many of the raspberries that fit and smoosh them. The idea is to get all the goodness of the raspberries into the bowl below and leave the seeds behind.

3. In the microwavable bowl or pyrex measuring cup, stir together the sugar and water. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until it’s liquid.

4. Mix the raspberry juice with the sugar syrup. Add a splash of Chambord, framboise or Gran Marnier if you’re given to such luxuries.