Here’s a shot of one of the chocolate lava cakes I made for my brother-in-law’s birthday party. I think the last time I made these was for the same occasion, two years ago. Gideon had said periodically since then that I should make them again, and my answer has always been, “I’ll make them for Ed’s birthday.” So here they are. I made some changes from the recipe I found online, and this is now a pretty standard recipe anyway. I did find it interesting that, as for a number of recipes, the innovation came about because of a mistake. Its originator, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, apparently pulled a chocolate cake out of the oven too soon and realized that its underbaked warm center was actually an asset. Then he must have developed the individual cakes that are usual today. A full-sized version would be very messy to serve.
You’ll notice in the recipe below that I’ve given another idea for serving these, which is to just leave them in the individual ramekins and let people eat them that way. You thus avoid the dreaded non-molding cakes and the fiddling with hot little dishes.
Chocolate Lava Cakes
These have to be timed so that they come out of the oven right when you're ready to eat them, because if they're allowed to sit for any length of time the middle will firm up and you'll lose your nice molten lava center. But you can prepare them ahead of time and refrigerate. The recipe says that you need to take them out and let them come to room temperature before baking, but I don't think that's true. If they're cold when they go into the oven, the center will have a better chance of not overbaking.
You'll note that this recipe has relatively little sugar as an ingredient, and bittersweet chocolate has less sugar than semi-sweet. Using the rough guideline that the bittersweet variety has 33% sugar, I came up with a sugar content of 20 grams per serving, just underthe recommended daily limit for added sugar of 25 grams. I include directions for making an unsweetened whipped-cream topping in the notes following the recipe, but you could get away with lightly-sweetened whipped cream if you're very, very good.
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter plus more for buttering ramekins (but you can just use Pam)
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped, best quality such as Ghirardelli (a brand I try to stock up on when it's on sale)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Yes, do go ahead and make it that hot.
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Generously butter or Pam 6 six-ounce ceramic ramekins. Then "flour" the ramekins with unsweetened cocoa powder. Using cocoa for a cake pan when you're making a chocolate cake prevents having a white residue on your finished product. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet. OR . . . and I will note here that I haven't yet tried this, but it seems to me that it would work really well, cut strips of parchment that are a little wider and a little longer than the sides. Spray the inside of the ramekins with cooking spray, then fit the parchment strips into the sides and spray those too. You can sift some cocoa over all that if you'd like, just for extra non-stick insurance. This parchment-paper procedure won't take very long and will save you from the dreaded non-release lava cakes. (But see below for an easier serving idea.)
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Melt the butter in a medium bowl in the microwave, 2 minutes at 50% power for a standard oven. Immediately add the chopped chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely smooth and melted. If a few chunks remain, place the bowl back in the microwave for 30 seconds on 50%, then stir again. Repeat if necessary. Set aside. (I don't understand recipes that tell you to melt anything, especially chocolate, on full power. That's a good way to get scorching.)
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In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks, brown sugar, vanilla and salt at high speed until thickened and pale, about 4 minutes, using a hand mixer. Add the melted chocolate mixture and beat in. Add the flour to this mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. Don't worry if the batter deflates a bit.
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Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared ramekins and bake for 8 minutes, until the cakes are set and puffed over the edges of the ramekins. As soon as they come out of the oven, invert each one onto an individual serving plate. They should pop right out, but you can run a thin-bladed knife around the edges if necessary. (But this "pop right out" thing hasn't always happened for me.) OR . . . another idea that I got after the last time I made these, just leave them in the ramekins, setting each one on a plate. If you did the parchment business as above, just pull the parchment strips out. Trying to turn these blazing-hot ramekins over onto a serving dish with clumsy oven mitts or pads is a pain,. But having the parchment paper in place for baking means that people won't have to scrape out the last bits. If you're determined to turn these out onto the plates, the parchment paper will help guarantee a smooth unmolding. Indeed, if you know you want to unmold them you can also put parchment circles into the bottoms.
Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream (ice cream seems best to me, as melted ice cream is better than melted whipped cream.) Raspberries are a nice added touch.
Recipe Notes
Make-ahead note: The batter can be spooned into the ramekins, covered and refrigerated for several hours before baking. As mentioned above, I see no reason to take them out of the fridge ahead of time to come to room temperature. Just be sure you set your oven to heat up so that it's ready to go when you need to bake them.
