Chocolate Lava...What Could Be Better?

Today's featured recipe is one of my most favorite recipes ever - Mini Molten Chocolate Cakes. Oh so good. Better than any lava cake I've had at any restaurant, except Rialto in Harvard Square, although it looks like the lava cakes are no longer on the menu. SO SAD. It is still an excellent restaurant. I mean excellent.


Okay, focus Jane, back to the recipe. It comes from the Better Homes & Gardens New Baking Book. It's way gourmet but super easy to make. Definitely one of my favorite desserts. Of course this is coming from a person who doesn't eat dessert unless chocolate is involved...and my tolerance for rich chocolate desserts is OFF THE CHARTS. But that means I'm picky about my chocolate, and these cakes get an A+. Click on over to the Recipes-Sweet Things and scroll to the bottom of the page for the recipe.

A few quick notes:

Before I had my KitchenAid I would just use my hand mixer to beat the egg mixture. That worked just fine...but the KitchenAid is pretty awesome at getting the eggs oh so light and fluffy.


The recipe calls for melting the chocolate & butter in a heavy pan on low heat, but I usually use a double boiler (pyrex bowl over slowly simmering water). I trust myself more this way...less chance of me burning the chocolate. Also, you can just use chocolate chips - they taste great. I'm sure fancy chocolate would taste even better, but the chocolate chips work very well. If I wasn't the cook, I would never guess it wasn't the highest quality chocolate being used.


I use 6 small Crate & Barrel ramekins for this recipe. It's the perfect ramekin:batter ratio. Don't forget to butter and sugar the ramekins before pouring in the batter. When you invert your cakes onto plates after cooling, they'll come out pretty nicely (sometimes you need a knife to loosen them around the edges a bit first). The sugar also gives the cakes a nice outer edge.


The only tricky part is taking them out of the oven at the right time. I used to always cook them too long, turning them into plain old cakes, no molteness to be found. Now I tend cook them too short, making them too reminiscent of a real live volcano. It you find that happy medium, you end up with the perfect amount of molten goodness. The edges should looked cooked and the center should be firm, but not as cooked as the edges. You just need to experiment with your oven to get it right. The picture here is of a lava cake that is NOT cooked enough. Hopefully that can help you gauge correctly! I know, so helpful. Sorry! If you don't cook them long enough, inverting them onto a plate will be disastrous...still tasty, but not so pretty. We usually just eat them right of the ramekins, anyway...less dishes to wash. And, unless you burn them or completely undercook them, they are still mighty good even if they're not perfect.


I've been wanting to share these cakes with you for some time. Enjoy!

Featured Recipe: 60-Second Brussel Sprouts

Remember my friend Lindsay? Today I'm finally sharing one of her recipes with you! It's a simple recipe actually...but delicious!


Cate and I got to eat dinner at Lindsay & Aaron's house the other evening when Nate was working late (the PhD is ALMOST DONE!). Anyway, everything tasted awesome, as usual. Even these brussel sprouts! Who'd have thought? :) Seriously, I actually like brussel sprouts pretty well, and these are the best ones I've had. Aaron just talked trash about how they smelled...yeah, he doesn't like them. So, I've warned you - if you hate brussel sprouts, this recipe still may not be for you. But I thought it was yummy.

Click here to learn how to make 60-Second Brussel Sprouts. Lindsay was saying one of the reasons they are so good is because you don't have to cook them for very long, so they don't get that sulfur-y flavor. Plus, anything with butter is bound to be good. ;)

Truffles cont'd...the secret ingredient

While my attempt at chocolate truffles may not have been stellar, I did forget to mention something I discovered that I HAVE to share with you all...something I did RIGHT.


I've always heard that coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate. I'm not a big coffee fan, so usually when a chocolate recipe calls for it, oops, I left it out. However, I decided to give it a try this time around. Let me tell ya, what they say is true. The truffles do not taste like coffee at all AND the chocolate taste is so much richer. (As if you need to make truffles as rich as possible...but if you're gonna go, go all the way, right?) ANYWAY...it's true, it's true. The coffee definitely gave the chocolate taste more depth. It's an amazing little trick.

For all you coffee drinkers out there, yes, I used nasty instant granules. I know, I know. NASTY. But when you only need 1 tablespoon in a recipe AND you know you're not going to taste the coffee anyway...well, instant granules here I come.

If your truffle recipe doesn't have coffee in it, you could probably just add 1 Tbsp and be safe. I would just add it at the end when you add in the other flavorings, like liqueur or oils.

So far my friend Dottie is the only one to share a recipe and truffle techniques (thank you, Dottie!!). I know there are more experts out there! Get over to my original truffle post and help me out already! :)

Wanted: Truffle Teacher

I ventured into the world of chocolate truffle making the other night, with mixed results. The truffles TASTE great, but are far from culinarily artistic perfection. I thought today I'd share what I did along with my questions, hoping you can teach me the right way to do this!


Want the job as Truffle Teacher? All you have to do is post a comment! I'm mostly concerned with technique, but of course if you have a good recipe please share that as well!

For reference, THIS (click here) is the recipe I primarily used (although I referenced a few others as well).

Okay, the Truffle 101 Discussion Group is now beginning.

Jane Observations:
- When they say finely chop the chocolate, they mean FINELY chop the chocolate. I just had a few small pieces here and there (see pic), but they were just too big to melt in the heated cream.


- You can store your finished truffles in the fridge for weeks, but eat them at room temp - so much better when they are nice and soft.

Jane's Questions:
- I wanted to do some hazelnut-flavored truffles. I split the recipe in half and added ~1 1/2 tsp of hazelnut oil, but you honestly cannot tell that they were flavored. Has anyone used hazelnut oil in a similar situation? How much should I use?

- When should you form your truffle balls? One recipe said to leave the mixture out for 1 hour then make the balls. I did that - the chocolate was still so soft it was nearly impossible to work with. Another recipe said to refrigerate for 1 hour then make the balls...so I put the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes. When I tried to make the truffles I actually BROKE the melon baller the chocolate was so hard. It was the biggest pain making the balls (which is why mine look so lumpy). What technique do you suggest? Do you use a melon baller, fingers, two spoons? HELP!


- What is your favorite flavoring and in what quantities should they go into the recipe?

I THINK that was all the questions/troubles I had. Seriously, if you've made truffles and they came out, tell us what you did!

Even though my truffles don't LOOK as pretty as I would have liked...it's not stopping us from eating them! :)

A Chocolate Valentine for You!

Time for your chocolate valentine! Seriously, what is Valentine's Day without chocolate?


Adrianne made this beautiful Chocolate Ganache Tart (click for recipe) today. She even shared a few slices with us! Adrianne and I did a little taste test during the photo shoot...it's sooooo rich and sooooo good. I'm going to be a good girl and eat ALL of my dinner tonight...don't want to miss dessert!

Here Comes Lindsay Claus...

Okay, I know that title was DUMB. Couldn't think of anything better. I just wanted to wet your whistle with this pretty picture and a promise of great things to come...


Enter Lindsay Claus. Okay, that's not really her last name, but it may as well be with the gifts she has to share with us. My new friend Lindsay recently moved in next door. She loves to cook and does crazy things like grind whole spices and make her own corn chips. Yes, I consider that crazy. Come on, you guys know me by now. I doubt sincerely I'll ever fry up even one homemade corn chip in this lifetime. But that doesn't change the fact that I think it's AWESOME. She has some great recipes to share, and her cooking makes for some even greater photography, what with the beautiful ingredients and cookware galore.

I have a few Lindsay features lined up, however, I need to go through the hundreds of pictures I took and pick just a few to share. Until then, I thought I'd share this shot of her beautiful spices in their beautiful containers.