Allison Cafe

hmmmm....dark chocolate lava cake!

Happy Belated Valentines Day to everyone! We enjoyed our day in sunny SoCal yesterday and found ourselves so thankful for our beautiful life together. My husband made the most delicious dinner of grilled lack of lamb on a bed of swiss chard with pomme frites and a beet salad with feta cheese and argula. It was so good that I do not have any photos, we enjoyed it too much!

Dessert was my domain yesterday. And we did pause for a brief moment to snap a quick photo (above). I debated what sort of healthy chocolate decadence to create. I settled on a recipe I found in my Better Homes and Gardens New Bridal Edition cookbook. The results were similar to a chocolate souffle but the recipe was much faster to make. And the best part is that you can make it up to step 4 and then just keep it chilled until 30 minutes before you intend to bake it, meaning that it is a great dinner party dessert with unbelievably rich and delicious, souffle-like  results.

Here is the recipe:

Dark chocolate, healthy antioxidents and tasty!

Baby Lava Cakes

Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Bridal Edition Cookbook

Yields 3 servings. Hint: I halved the original recipe since I was only making it for 2 people. To make the measurements easier or to make 6 servings, simply double the recipe.

Ingredients

• 5.25 oz of Trader Joe’s Swiss Dark Chocolate, 72% Cocao
• 1 tbsp whipping cream, or other heavy cream
• 2 tbsp brewed coffee or espresso
• 1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup unsalted butter
• 1.5 eggs (hint: to measure 1/2 an egg, place the egg in a air tight container and shake until combined. Pour into a small measuring cup and measure half of it out)
• 1.5 egg yolks (same process as above to get half an egg yolk)
• 1/6 cup (or 1 half of 1/3 cup)
• 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp of vanilla
• 1/6 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• Powdered sugar (optional)
• Sliced berries (optional)
• Almond slices (optional)

Preparation

Step 1: Make the filling. Make a double boiler (place a small amount of water in a 1-2 quart saucepan and place a heatproof bowl into the pot, it should rest comfortably on the top without sinking down into the water in the saucepan). Place a little less than half of the chocolate pieces, whipping cream and 1 tbsp of the coffee into the bowl. Bring the water to a soft boil and gently stir the chocolate until melted. Remove the bowl from heat, cover and chill until firm, about 45 minutes. You can do this step the day before if needed.

Step 2: Melt the remaining chocolate, butter and 1 tbsp of coffee in a double boiler as described above. Remove bowl from heat and let cool.

Step 3: Remove the filling created in step 1 from the fridge. Form the filling into  3 (or 6 if doubling the recipe) equal sized balls and set aside. Lightly grease with butter and flour 3 (or 6 if doubling the recipe) 3/4 cup souffle dishes. Place dishes on 1 inch deep baking pan and set aside.

Step 4: In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes on high speed or until lemon colored. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture from step 2 on medium speed until combined. Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the mixture and beat on low just until combined. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the better into the greased souffle dishes. Place 1 ball of filling into each dish and evenly distribute the remaining batter among the dishes. cover and chill for up to 4 hours until 30 minutes before you plan to bake them, letting them come to room temp for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Step 5: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake for 13 minutes or until cakes feel firm at edges. Remove from oven and let cool in dishes for 2-3 minutes. Using a knife, gently loosen cakes from sides of dishes and turn out onto dessert plates. Dust with powdered sugar, top with almond slices and garnish with sliced berries. Serve warm with Hagen Daz 5 ingredient Vanilla Bean ice cream.

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