Tuesdays with Dorie: Gooey Chocolate Cakes

 

 

We had a snow storm today. Even though tomorrow is April 1, it was still pretty outside. And it was the perfect night for a warm gooey dessert. Tonight I made Gooey Chocolate Cakes.

I wasn’t planning on serving these until later in the evening, so I picked away at prepping throughout the evening. When it was time, everything came together very easily. The only glitch was after they had been in the oven for 5 minutes. I was cleaning the counter and found my finely chopped chocolates for the tops (or is that the bottoms?). Anyway, I opened the oven, sprinkled on the chocolate, and everything came out fine.

After reading other comments from people, I checked them after 10 minutes but I ended up leaving them for the full 13 minutes called for in the recipe. They came out nicely gooey, as you can see further down.

I used Dorie’s trick of the disposable muffin tin and it worked great. Here they are fresh from the oven:

I didn’t have any problem unmolding them. The really great thing about this recipe is you only have to wait 3 minutes to dig in. Here they are ready to plate:

Yummmm. This one isn’t going to last long:

I don’t think I ate this so much as I inhaled it. I wish that I had ice cream to go with it, but since the snow was coming down, the winds were blowing, and the roads were slippery . . . I stayed in and just savored the warm gooey goodness! Oh yeah . . . my son and husband loved them too.

Gooey Chocolate Cake

From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate,

• 4 ounces coarsely chopped
• 1 ounce very finely chopped

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: 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 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.

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 and sprinkle the finely 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). I usually obsess over testing whether something is done or not, so being unable to test for doneness is a definite plus for me.

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.

Serves 6 (or less if someone is having one of those days)

Tip: These can be reheated the next day for about 15 seconds in the microwave to restore their gooeyness