Molten Chocolate Cakes

6 tbls unsalted butter
6 tbls unsweetened cocoa
1 oz 70% cocoa baking chocolate (or other good, strong bittersweet chocolate)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 tbls (1/4 cup plus 2 tbls) sugar
a small pinch of salt
2 tsps flour

Melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave. Add the cocoa and mix till well combined. Beat the eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt and sugar until very well combined. Beat the egg mix into the chocolate mix until smooth. Add the flour and beat till just combined. Butter and dust with cocoa powder two 7 oz ramekins and divide the batter up between them. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, till the edges are set but the center is still shiny and a toothpick comes out with batter attached. Run a knife between the cake and the ramekin and turn it out, upside down onto a warm serving plate.

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If you haven't ever had these little beauties then you are missing out on some serious deliciousness. They can be found in tons of restaurants, running the gamut from bland and over cooked to achingly sublime. You can even get decent frozen ones from the grocery store, if you are so inclined. But I really wanted to make my own. I'm kind of like that. This recipe is adapted from several different sources for a couple different reasons. Reason one, I only had one ounce of baking chocolate on hand and wasn't going out in the pouring rain for more when I had lots of unsweetened cocoa. I saw several recipes that had both, so I figured it would work out fine with a little tweaking. I added a little more butter than some (still less than others), to compensate for the cocoa's lack of fat and a little more sugar, for its lack of sweet (although my girlfriend still wanted them sweeter. As is, these are almost like dark chocolate, more rich than sweet. If you want them sweeter add a couple more tablespoons of sugar.). Reason the second, I am not so fond of separating eggs that I'm going to do any more than I have to and lots of recipes called for upwards of four yolks. Plus I found a recipe that makes two cakes, which is perfect since I'm baking for two. With those measurements as a guideline, I came up with this.

First thing is to melt the butter and the bar chocolate. I used a makeshift double boiler this time around. Once those are melted add in the cocoa and mix it up. In a separate bowl mix together the sugar, eggs, yolks, vanilla and salt. Add the chocolate mix to the egg mix (or vice versa) and combine them well. Add the flour and just combine it. Now apparently this batter is very forgiving and will sit in the fridge for hours or even freeze well. One tip I saw was to freeze them in the ramekins and just toss them into the oven during the preheat cycle and they turn out fine. I haven't tried that, but if it works then that's just lovely. Either way, you need to prep the ramekins. Butter them well then dust them with cocoa powder. I like using cocoa powder instead of flour to dust with when making chocolate cakes. It works the same but doesn't give you any white spots on them. Divide the batter between the ramekins and toss them in a 350 degree oven. Pull them out in about 15 minutes or so. Mine actually took almost exactly 15 minutes. They should be set around the edges, but still shiny in the middle. You want to serve these immediately, or else you won't get good goo coming out. Run a knife around the inside of the ramekin if you need to then turn them out onto a plate. On both of mine the bottom didn't really set... but whatever. There was a nice cakey ring around the edge and plenty of molten chocolaty goo on the inside. Now these were very, very rich. I topped them with whipped cream, since that's what I had, but I think they would be best with ice cream. Or you could cut down on the cocoa to make them less rich... but I can't really recommend that. So there you have it, molten chocolate cakes. I was surprised by how easy these were, but not by how good.