I made chocolate lava cake, and I HAD to share not only how to make it, but the PHOTOS.
This is my favorite dessert to make, and how I started making it is a bit of a story.
Several moons ago, there was this restaurant I went to that made a dynamite chocolate lava cake.
The restaurant that made it was actually a Japanese restaurant that is around 10 miles away from my house. I used to crave this thing badly enough that when I would take myself out on dates... I would go to that restaurant for the sashimi, but also for the chocolate lava cake. The dense richness of the cake was what I loved about it so much as well as the fact that it was so chocolatey. It never left me dissatisfied... that is, up until it was changed.
I didn't like the new chocolate lava cake at all! It was more like a typical cake with lava in the middle and it didn't taste as chocolatey as I remembered. So this is when the recipe search started. Nestle Tollhouse sold a baking chocolate bar that happened to have a chocolate lava cake recipe on it. So I bought the baking chocolate and used the recipe and loved it. I happily made chocolate lava cakes using this recipe, and they always came out beautifully. Then one day, about 2 years ago, the recipe got lost.
I lost my mind over this; it was one of my favorite treats! I tore up the house and searched the Internet, and the recipe was nowhere to be found. The baking chocolate with the recipe on it was no longer being sold at the store, and I didn't find another store that carried it. I was afraid I wouldn't find that recipe again until one day. Tat sweet morning before the dawn about a week or two ago. I wandered into the Acme near my job not even knowing why I was going in there. I was supposed to go to Starbucks, but ended up walking into the Acme. I went to the baked goods aisle and my eye caught gold wrapping! Could it be?
I reached back and snatched up the baking chocolate to get a good look. IT WAS! It was the baking chocolate that I had bought all that time ago that was nowhere to be found! That morning, I was reunited with my beloved recipe. No, I didn't cry (but I sort of wanted to), but I did squeal and jump up and down in the aisle and I hugged it. Yes, I hugged it. Thank the Lord that no one is ever shopping in Acme at that time in the morning.
So anyway, two weeks later, I am baking the chocolate lava cakes from the recipe I've come to love so much for the first time in about a year or two. I am NOT losing track of this one. In fact, I'm keeping both wrappers just in case, but I'm keeping a sharp eye on this one. If I have to FRAME that thing and hang it in the kitchen, I'm not losing it again!
okay, now that you've read my story, on to the chocolatey goodness:
Ingredients:
- 8oz of chocolate (most baking bars are 4oz, so get two. you want bittersweet chocolate for this)
- 3 lg eggs + 3 egg yolks
- ¾c (1½ sticks butter)
- ¼c + 1tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 Tb. all purpose flour
- powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
- your ice cream of choice for serving (also optional, but highly recommended).
- 6 small ramekins (or 4 slightly bigger ones) and some extra butter for greasing said ramekins.
Don't worry guys; I found the recipe online, and I'll share it with you. No need to actually remember all of this.
You want to melt the chocolate and the butter together and set aside. You can do this in a sauce pan on low heat, but another good option (and the method I often use when melting chocolate) is to use a double boiler. I do this because I'm highly paranoid about burning the chocolate. Shoot, that stuff is expensive! I was getting Ghiradelli for a while after I couldn't find the Nestle Tollhouse bars, and those things went up by twenty cents!!! I don't want to waste anything!
Sorry, I digress.
Once you've melted the chocolate and set it aside, get a bowl and put together all the egg, the sugar and vanilla extract. Before you start beating, grease the ramekins with butter and start preheating the oven to 425°F. Beat it by hand or by machine. The directions say about 8 minutes. I whisked it up by hand. What you want is for the eggs to turn a pale-ish yellow (kind of like creme anglaise, but without heat) and it should be fairly thick. Nowhere near as thick as creme anglaise, but this is something you'll feel if you mix it by hand.
It should go from this...
to this.
When this step is completed, take the chocolate that you have set aside, and incorporate it into the egg mixture. Add it in by thirds and fold. Fold in the flour on the last addition of chocolate. Make sure there are no lumps so you don't get a mouthful of flour (trust me, it tastes nasty).
Divide amongst the ramekins until all of the batter is exhausted. Put the ramekins in an oven proof dish just to make them easier to extract once the time is up. Bake for 13 minutes or until the sides are set and the centers move slightly when shaken. Don't leave in any longer than that time or there will be no lava, which, while very tasty, defeats the purpose of it being a chocolate lava cake.
Don't they look cute?
Once extracted, these are to be served immediately. To remove the treat from its dish, loosen it by running a knife around the edge. Be careful not to cut into the cake. Grasp the ramekin with a pot holder to avoid burning yourself and get your serving plate. Place the plate eating side down on top of the ramekin and flip. Twist the ramekin and pull upward. The lava cake should slide out easily. Serve by dusting with confectioner's sugar or with your favorite ice cream.
Biting into that thing for the first time in quite a while was pure bliss. The outside was set and slightly crisp (kind of like the outside of a Dunkin Donuts munchkin), the layer immediately on the inside was very moist, and there was the pudding like center. It was dense, chocolatey, and everything one of these delectable delights should be. If you're gonna have chocolate, go for the gold... and this is it folks.
Look at how well set that is on the outside in contrast to how moist it is on the inside! You can't beat that! Too scrumptious!
If I made you drool, made you squeal just looking at the pictures, and/or made you want to run out and have one of these for yourself, I've done my job. It's not hard to make, and it does take some effort, but once you taste it, it will be well worth that effort.
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Comments (10)
That looks good, but I doubt that I'll be making them. Even if I had six ramekins, there is no way that I would eat six chocolate lava cakes at one time. And I'm the only one for whom I would be making these.
I have made these a few times but my recipe is really different - you make a really soft, sticky dough with cocoa, flour, and butter, and mold it to ramekins or use a muffin tin, then you actually fill the center with the "lava", top them off with more dough, and bake. It's a pain in the ass, but the benefit is that these can be put in the fridge after baking and reheated. They are very difficult to extract though - I made them last week and destroyed 3 of them trying to get them out. lol
Goodness, this post certainly did its job of stirring up the craving & inspiration to make it! It looks great!
I'm not the kind of person that likes warm desserts, but this looks yummy!
Drool. I think I saw something like this on Pinterest today. Yum. I'm considering making it for Valentine's Day for my husband
Looks really decadent!
@EJC102486@xanga - I wonder if the use of nonstick baking spray with flour would aid in the removal of cakes from ramekins/tin?
I love chocolate lava cake! I have never made one myself, but Chili's and Applebee's make yummy chocolate lava cakes! It goes great with a sour apple martini to cut the sweetness ;)
i like the idea of the chocolate oozing out.
We have these at Dominos and they are DELICIOUS!!!
@babybug329@xanga - I used a generous amount of butter and had no problems.
@EJC102486@xanga - that sounds great. I haven't tried it this way, but I should.
@LilMizfoodie4891@xanga - Cool, I'll make a mental note of buttering the dishes well. I really want to make them, they look so delicious.