Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Chocolate Lava Cakes with White Chocolate Centers Revisted

The last time I made these cakes I followed the recipe from Delectable, Marlene van der Westhuizen's first cook book. It produced a delicious and rich cakes. Actually I can't say enough about this cookbook, It's my new favorite!
I wanted to try to create a healthier version. If you can call something made with eggs, sugar, chocolate and butter healthy. I took my Molten Chocolate Cake recipe, it uses less eggs and added a few pieces of white chocolate to the center and voila! Wonderful yummy cakes, a little more heart and pocketbook friendly.
I started with these sweet little 3 ounce ramekins that I buttered and lined with parchment.
Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds until small lumps remained.At this point, stir the chocolate mixture until smooth and all lumps have disappeared.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until pale.Add the melted chocolate mixture, once it's incorporated, mix in the flour.
At this point, all that was left was filling the ramekins.
I broke up the white chocolate into small pieces.
Fill the ramekins half way and add 3 pieces of white chocolate.
Cover the white chocolate pieces and hold them at room temperature until ready to bake. If your are not baking them off soon, place in the refrigerator, but allow them to warm up before putting in the oven.
Lining them up across the counter made me feel very organized and Virgo-ish!
When they came out of the oven, while my daughter ohhed and ahhed I turned one out onto a plate (which is a tricky business) and topped it with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa.
When we cut into it with a spoon, both chocolates oozed out. It was divine. And you could eat 2 for the calorie intake of one! And that would be the point, wouldn't it?

Chocolate Lava Cakes with White Chocolate Centers

1/4 cup unsalted butter
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I love the Trader Joe's brand)
1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1 -4 ounce bar white chocolate, broken into pieces
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line 6 - 3 ounce ramekins with parchment paper and grease thoroughly.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave oven, stirring every 15 seconds, until only small lumps of chocolate remain. Stir until smooth.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until pale. Stir in the vanilla. Beat in the chocolate mixture until smooth. Sprinkle with flour and stir, scraping down the sides until smooth.

Fill ramekins halfway and then add the white chocolate pieces. Top with more chocolate mixture.
Bake for 12minutes. Turn out onto a plate.
These are much more forgiving cakes than the plain dark chocolate. If you should over cook them and the centers are dry, the white chocolate saves the day by being all melted and runny!

All pictures and text are property of The Gypsy Chef.

3 comments:

  1. Oh boy! This looks wonderful! Great photographs. I shouldn't even look at this right after all the food that has been in the house lately! But, I am going to make this!

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  2. Gosh, this looks so tempting! A perfect thanksgiving dessert. I know it's been a while.. will try to catch up slowly. Have a wonderful holiday and cheers.

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  3. did the white chocolate do a good job of stayin g in the center..and was it melted good

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