TWD: Gooey Chocolate Cakes

Thanks to Leigh of Lemon Tartlet for choosing this week’s TWD recipe! It was a chocolate kind of week…you know we all have them…so this recipe really complemented the way I was feeling. Aww hell – I’ll be honest – I NEEDED chocolate. I don’t usually feel the NEED for certain foods but something inside me snapped last week (no, I’m not headed for the looney bin) and I felt that chocolate desire. Thank gawd this recipe was was waiting for me.

It took me until last night (last minute as usual) to buckle down and make these sweet little cakes. I knew it was a straightforward recipe but I put it off, despite my insatiable need, because I had made molten lava cakes 3 times in the past 2 years with terrible, terrible results…results so bad they never made it to the blog. And I know that these aren’t actually molten lava cakes, but admittedly, I was still a little hesitant about this one. But I plunged into the recipe last night after returning home from dinner at 8:15 feeling confident that Dorie wouldn’t let me down. I had read the “Problems and Questions” comments on the TWD blog so I was prepared for cakes that were either too gooey or not gooey enough; I decided to split the difference. 🙂 The recipe itself came together without incident (rather easily I dare say) and I decided to bake them in 6 individual 4oz ramekins as I was afraid to use the muffin pan for fear I wouldn’t be able to get them all out of the pan in one piece. I baked them for 12 minutes and they turned out just perfect; gooey in the center but not runny – success!!! (finally!!) Since I forgot to add the last 1oz of chocolate to the batter before baking, I topped the finished cakes with a few dark chocolate (60% cacoa) chips and I have to say that the chips added the perfect amount of texture to the soft and gooey cake. Delish!!!

To see how all of the other TWDers did this week, check out the ever-growing blogroll.

—–Last week: Caramel-Topped Flan as chosen by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon

Next week: The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart as chosen by Mary of Starting from Scratch

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Gooey Chocolate Cakes

source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces coarsely chopped milk chocolate,
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons of sugar

Getting ready:

1. 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.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.
3. Set a heatproof 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.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogeneous. 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.
5. 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.)
6. 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.