My Little Sweet Tooth

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe here. The time has come, though, because I’m pretty sure you will want to eat this:What is it, you ask? Why, just the best dessert I’ve made since last Thanksgiving’s caramel apple and pear-raspberry pie triumphs: individual chocolate lava cakes with vanilla cream sauce and strawberries. No big deal.

The sauce is my own concoction, but the cake recipe is from the Ghirardelli website. I only made three minor modifications. 1) I used salted butter, since that’s what I had on hand. 2) I used a substitute for cake flour, since I don’t keep that in my pantry and wasn’t about to go buy some for this one recipe. And 3) I split the batter between four 7 ounce ramekins instead of six 4 ounce ones, again because that’s what I had available.

Here’s the thing, though. It’s not the cake that has been calling me from the fridge. It’s the leftover vanilla sauce. Yesterday’s second breakfast consisted of strawberries dipped directly into a cold cup of creamy goodness. It was heavenly, my friends. Heavenly. And now that I’ve run out of strawberries, I’m trying to come up with other things I can smother in the stuff. It is soooooooooo yummy. It may also be the one thing that helps me stay in my midwife’s good graces. (Eat more food? Gain more weight? It’s for the baby’s sake, you say? Well…if you insist. My life is so hard.)

I’m guessing not everyone is looking to pack on a pound a week, though, so maybe I’m not setting the greatest example here. But honestly, even if you don’t make the little cakes, you should at least give the vanilla sauce a try. It’s super easy and probably terrible for you, and if you can’t indulge in a quick and sinfully delicious treat every now and then, what’s the point?

Chocolate Lava Cakes

You’ll make the lava first by breaking 1/2 of a 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking bar into small pieces, melting it, and whisking in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. You could use a double boiler to melt the chocolate, but I find it less of a hassle to just use the microwave. Watch it carefully, though, because chocolate can go from melty to scorched pretty quick. I think my microwave took about a minute and a half for this much chocolate. The chocolate and cream mixture will need to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

Since you’ll want to eat these cakes right away before the lava solidifies into igneous lumps of chocolate, don’t start making the batter until about half an hour before you plan on serving dessert.

Preheat your oven to 400 and spray your ramekins (four 7 ouncers if you’re like me; six 4 ouncers if you follow Ghirardelli) with cooking spray. DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS. You want the cakes to come out easily and in one piece, which they can’t do if they’re all stuck to the sides of the dish.

Break up and melt another baking bar–a whole one this time–and a stick of butter together. Again, microwaves and double boilers are equally effective. If you go the microwave route, melt the chocolate for about a minute before adding the butter, then microwave more until everything is getting melty. Either way, cutting the butter into smaller chunks helps the melting process go faster. Whisk the butter and chocolate together and set them aside.

In another bowl, beat 2 eggs, 2 additional egg yolks, 1/3 cup of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla on high speed for about five minutes. Add 1/4 of cake flour. Pour in the melted chocolate/butter mix and stir everything together until it is just combined. Divide the batter evenly into the ramekins.

Get the other chocolate mixture out of the fridge now, and divide it into 4 (or 6) balls. It will be kind of solid but will soften quickly in your hands, so work fast and plan on getting chocolate all over your fingers. (Oh darn, right?) I just used a spoon to scoop some out, rolled it up, and plopped it into a ramekin. Done and done.

Bake the little cakes for about 15 minutes. You’ll probably want to err on the side of less time, though, because a slightly gooey lava cake is better than a dry one with burnt edges. My oven is wonky, so I actually baked these at 375 for 14 minutes. Use your best judgment here. If the top of a cake looks dry and you can’t really see the ganache ball in the center, it’s probably done. Let them sit for a couple minutes before sliding a sharp knife around the edges of each ramekin.

At this point you could dump them out on plates and eat them plain (all warm and oozing chocolate goodness) or you could drizzle the plate with vanilla sauce and garnish everything with some strawberries like I did. I won’t judge you if you go with the first option, but personally? I think the extra stuff on the side takes the whole thing from “Yay! Tiny chocolate cakes!” to “Now I can die a happy woman because I have eaten the dessert of the gods.” Choose your own adventure.

Vanilla Cream Sauce

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 cup of heavy cream. Combine well (no lumps please!) and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat if necessary, but keep simmering for 5 to 10 minutes. You want the sauce to thicken up a bit but not turn into, say, pudding. Remove from heat and add a teaspoon of vanilla. Stir well and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

If you make this ahead of time and store it in the fridge, or are just hanging on to any extra you might have, though, know that some small lumps may form. These go away when the sauce is reheated. Or you could be like me and just ignore the lumps and eat it cold. Whatever works for you.

Drizzle it over cakes, dunk fruit in it, or come up with something else to do with the stuff because I still have about a quarter cup in my fridge and while I’m not about to toss it out, I’m hesitant to just eat it with a spoon. I do have some boundaries.

Ingredients for Chocolate Lava Cakes
1 1/2 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar (or your favorite baking chocolate)
2 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 stick butter
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cake flour*

Ingredients for Vanilla Cream Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

*If you don’t have cake flour, you can substitute cornstarch and all-purpose flour. The ratio is 2 tablespoons to just under 1 cup. So for 1/4 cup of cake flour, put 1/2 a tablespoon of cornstarch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup, then fill the rest with all-purpose flour. Easy peasy.