Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Gooey Chocolate Cakes


Here is an easy, but impressive looking dessert. Perfect to serve to guests! I made it in honor of the American Idol Finale. This recipe reminds me of my Mom's recipe for "Brownie pudding", which is basically a cake that creates it's own pudding while baking. My brother Greg would ask for a Brownie pudding Birthday cake every year for his Birthday! The filling for these is a little richer and the cake a little more dry, but overall DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz. milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) margarine, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
fresh raspberries to garnish

Preparations:
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter (or spray - it's easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Set a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted - you don't want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don't beat) them into the eggs. Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. y chopped chocolate over the batter.

Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)

Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board. Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.

Reference: Baking: From my Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

those look great..i love lava gooey cakes...i should make those more often..
YUM

Kelly said...

I'd LOVE to see a recipe for these brownie pudding things you speak of :-)

Anonymous said...

seriously I have ALWAYS wanted to make these but never had the guts. I've been afraid they were too labor intensiv eto pull of with guests, but now that you explain how easy they can be I may have to try them soon!