I got some good quality Swiss chocolate today from a French friend who'd visited Switzerland over the weekend. What to do with this besides just eat it all? Hm... I tried my hand at baking some mini chocolate molten lava cakes! They were irresistibly delicious and with some homemade crème anglaise... it was heavenly.
My uncle taught me this disputed French-American dessert. There's some controversy over whether it was invented in the U.S. or in France but either way, it's delicious and that's all that matters! My roommate were raving about this dessert and even the crème anglaise was gone by the end of the night. Let's hope that my Pascal doesn't go to Switzerland every weekend, or I might die of a chocolate-related heart disease... though dying because of too much chocolate doesn't sound like a bad death =D
Here's the recipe for anyone interested in trying. It's very easy to follow, you don't need too many ingredients, and it's scrumptious!
Molten Lava Cake
Ingredients:
3.5 oz. (100 g) good quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
4 tbsp. (100g) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
3 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. (30g) all purpose flour
Cocoa powder
Butter
Directions:
Butter ramekins then add a little bit of cocoa powder to each ramekin, shaking off any excess. This is just to make sure that the cake will come out of the ramekin after it bakes =)
Preheat your oven to 350F (176C)
Melt the chocolate and butter together over a double broiler or in the microwave, stirring often so that the chocolate doesn't burn!
Whisk the eggs and sugar together and beat until very pale and thick (it takes over 10 minutes with a hand mixer... yeah, I said it was easy and good, I never said it was fast!).
Turn the speed on your mixer to low and add the flour. Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture and mix to combine.
Divide mixture into the ramekins and bake for 10 minutes! Don't bake for longer... then it won't be a molten lava cake but just a regular chocolate cake.
For the Crème Anglaise:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup (0.5dl) heavy cream
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
Directions:
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the vanilla and cream together. DO NOT BOIL!
Whisk egg yolk with sugar until it's becomes glossy and smooth.
Temper the egg yolk-sugar mixture with the hot cream.
Whisk constantly so that the egg doesn't curdle!
Slowly, whisking constantly, add the heated egg mixture to the cream mixture.
Whisk egg yolk with sugar until it's becomes glossy and smooth.
Temper the egg yolk-sugar mixture with the hot cream.
Whisk constantly so that the egg doesn't curdle!
Slowly, whisking constantly, add the heated egg mixture to the cream mixture.
Whisk until it thickens (until it's napé as the French would call it) - the mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon and holds a line when you take a finger and draw across it.
Use immediately or after it cools; if you have leftovers, you can keep it in the refrigerator for a few days.
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