Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes 4 servings in deep pan / 6 in a smaller pan
I wonder if there is more chocolate consumed during Valentine’s season than any other time of year. Make this chocolate dessert for a delicious ending to your Valentine’s Day dinner. It does all the perfect chocolate things; texture – gooey and crusty; taste – Valrhona 60% gives the perfect balance of intense chocolate and mild sweetness.
My brother, Chef Tim Quinn, created this recipe that allows you to prepare the batter ahead of time and bake the cakes just before serving. This dessert has been the favorite wherever my brother Tim has been the chef (Sherlock’s Old Lyme, Seaman’s Inn Mystic, and now Old Sturbridge Village)
The idea of a molten cake is to have the outside edge just baked and a little crusty; in the middle a gloriously soft indescribably delicious molten gooey center.
Bake the cakes in 4-ounce individual pans or a deep cup cake pan. Butter each cup cake pan, sprinkle with cocoa powder, then shake off excess cocoa. (Although a deep pan is ideal I’ve made them on the spur of the moment in a standard cup cake pan, take 2 minutes off the baking time)
Make the batter up to 2 hours before you plan to bake the cakes, set the batter aside in a cool place, not the refrigerator. (The eggs are cooked through when you combine them with the warm chocolate and butter mixture.) Turn the oven on when you sit down to eat. After dinner pop the cakes in the oven.
Pre-heat oven to 450 F (425F convection)
2 large whole eggs
2 large egg yolks
one-quarter cup sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
one stick butter
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (recommend Valhrona 60%)
2 T cake flour or finely ground ground hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts
1 pint French vanilla ice cream (or flavor of your choice)
One-half pint fresh raspberries, strawberries, orange sections (your choice)
Nuts taste best when you toast them lightly before using. Heating the nuts pulls the oil to the surface imparting a more intense flavor. Place nuts on a cookie sheet in a cold oven, turn heat to 350F and toast for about 8 minutes. Or toast in a pan on top of the stove over the lowest heat for about 8-10 minutes, shake to turn every minute or so. Use a Cuisinart or clean coffee grinder to grind the nuts.
Use an electric mixer or a whisk (it depends on the strength in your forearm). Beat eggs until light about 1 minute, mix in sugar and cream and beat 3 minutes. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over a medium low heat, remove mixture from the double boiler from heat and let cool slightly (3-4 minutes). Pour mixture into eggs stirring constantly so eggs don’t cook. Or you can take one-fourth cup or so of the chocolate butter mixture, stir into the eggs to equalize the temperature and then add the remaining chocolate mixture to the eggs. Fold in flour or groundnuts.
Pour into prepared cup cake pans and place in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit on a cooling rack 3-4 minutes. Use oven mitts to un-mold cakes and place cakes on individual serving plates. Place a scoop of ice cream next to each cake and strew a few berries or sliced fruit around the plate.
