Chocolate for (not really) Cynics

I've never been one for Valentine's Day.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not really a cynic. I'm a huge fan of love and the expression thereof, but why only be romantic one day a year? Why fight other couples for jewelry and flowers and tables at over-booked restaurants?

But I'm not here to expound on the foolishness of the holiday. It is one thing, and that's a great excuse for chocolate.

I used my chocolate excuse to make these Molten Chocolate Raspberry Cakes (along with half of the other food bloggers in the world), and while they're not terrifically attractive little desserts, they are pretty terrifically tasty.

They are very rich and truly chocolatey, so if you're not a chocolate fan (god help you), these probably won't be your thing. But hopefully you are, so that you can enjoy these, and we can stay friends. Make sure, when you make these, that you use chocolate that you enjoy eating on its own. I went with one of my Trader Joe's usuals: the Ocumare 71% from Venezuela. It comes in a 2.8 ounce bar, and while the original recipe, once divided, only called for about 2.3 ounces, I just threw the whole bar in. No regrets on that front. I do think, though, that they could have been smaller. I made a third of a recipe, because dividing it into quarters involved dividing egg yolks, and that was not something I was prepared to do. I made two of them in 6-ounce ramekins, and I think that three in 4-ounce might have been a better call, except that we might have ended up fighting over the last one, and that's not really what you're looking for on Valentine's Day.



Molten Chocolate Raspberry Cakes
Adapted from Epicurious

for the cake:
1 T. & 2 tsp. sugar
2.3 ounces (or 2.8) bittersweet chocolate, preferably 70% or more
4 T. butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. flour

for the raspberries:
fresh or frozen raspberries (I used about 4 ounces frozen, because it was what I had on hand - experiment!)
sugar to taste (or none!)

for the raspberries:
If you have fresh, more power to you - I would suggest using them as is. With frozen, I simply warmed them in a small saucepan over low heat until they melted a bit, and added a little sugar. Reheat slightly before pouring over the cakes at serving time.

for the cake:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and generously butter and sugar the insides of two 6-ounce ramekins (or three 4-ounce).

Stir chocolate and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat egg, egg yolk and sugar until thick and pale yellow, about 8 minutes. Fold 1/3 of warm chocolate mixture into egg yolk mixture (making sure it's not too warm), then fold in remaining chocolate. Fold in flour, and a few raspberries from the raspberry mixture, if you like. Divide batter between two (or three) ramekins.

Place ramekins on baking sheet. Bake until edges are puffed and slightly cracked, but center is still a little trembly, about 13 - 15 minutes.

To serve, unmold cakes onto small plates and top with raspberry mixture and softly whipped, (very) lightly sweetened whipped cream.



They won't be pretty, but you'll eat them anyway, and it will be so completely worth it.

What I did on my day off

Besides update once already, I mean.

I spent the afternoon making these: Pate a choux aux framboises.




Aren't they pretty?

Of course, saying that I spent the afternoon doing this makes it sound terribly labour-intensive, and it was really very simple. I had brought home some end-of-the-season raspberries, and was poking around Chocolate and Zucchini when I found this recipe and was instantly inspired. (I am a huge fan of Clotilde's, as you will soon find out - I wish Powell's stocked her cookbook!)

I was too lazy to look up conversions for her recipe, and have yet to get a scale (see my bit about dutch ovens a little earlier today), so I turned to the Joy of Cooking for my recipe and ended up with kind of a mishmash of the two that goes something as follows.

Pate a choux.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a smallish saucepan, combine:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into little pieces
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch of salt

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, and when the bubbles start add all at once:
1/2 cup flour
Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan and sticks to itself. It is a very distinctive look. Transfer to a bowl to cool a bit. It will look very unappetizing, but that's okay - it gets better.



After about five minutes, using the same spoon, beat in:
two eggs
Mix until smooth, then drop the dough in generous tablespoonfuls onto a layer of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. They will still look terrible. Do not be discouraged.



Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes. There will be an amazing transformation during this time:



Now - turn the oven off and let them sit - still in the oven - for an additional 10 minutes. Then pull them out, peel them off of the parchment paper and transfer to the rack that you hopefully own (I don't - again, dutch oven schpeal) and let cool. If you can't resist it, go ahead and eat one now. Matt and I polished off a couple before they ever got filled.



Once they are cool, fill with whipped cream and raspberries (for this version) or anything else that sounds tasty and eat!

The entire experience was very reminiscent of Japan for me, again. In every train station you can find little kiosks selling "shu kurimu," or choux cream - Japanese cream puffs, which I swear are one of the tastiest things you will ever put in your mouth. But if there are no Japanese train stations nearby, give these a shot - they'll do in a pinch.