I was a bit skeptical of this recipe as it said to place the chocolate in the center of the cake halfway through baking. This is not how I had made molten lava cake before, but I realize that biting into a cupcake in a moving car and having a chocolatey mess spill everywhere is not an ideal situation, so I just went with the recipe. There were a few steps in the recipe that I would change if I were to do it again - all detailed below.
Cooper dressing up because Mommy is coming home!
Before melting the chocolate down. One of these days, I need to do some research behind adding butter versus cream, and the best uses for both. I have made ganache with cream, but I generally melt chocolate down for use in batter with some butter. Anyone?
Splat!
Getting my egg whites to soft peaks
And....here they are!
Is it just me or does my chocolate look pink? The chocolate mixture now has the egg whites folded in. You can instantly notice a difference in the texture - it quickly became light and airy.
The recipe said to fill the cups 2/3 of the way up, but I ran out of batter!
Yes, I definitely ran out of batter. This cupcake was slightly smaller than the rest, which is why I ate it first. I only saved the biggest, fluffiest, chocolatiest cupcakes for my baby sister! It's not my fault she became full and I ate the rest of them!
Molten Lava Cupcakes, recipe from Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski
Makes 12, though for some reason mine only made 8
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
- 3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 bittersweet chocolate bar (most are about 4 ounces) broken evenly into 12 (or 8) pieces
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly spray a standard sized 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Place the semisweet chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or you can use a makeshift one: place a heatproof bowl over simmering water in a saucepan- make sure it is not touching the water). Stir frequently until melted and smooth (stirring makes sure the heat is evenly distributed). Remove the bowl from the saucepan and let the mixture cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the flour and whisk until combined.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites and salt on medium high speed, until foamy. I used my stand mixer, you could probably use any electric hand mixer as well. Slowly add sugar and beat continuously until soft peaks form.
Using a whisk, gently fold a third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten. Fold in the egg white mixture in two more additions until no white streaks remain.
Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. The recipe suggests baking the cupcakes for 5 minutes, I would suggest 2-3 minutes, because at 5 minutes, my cupcakes were nearly baked through and had risen considerably. Remove the pan from the oven and quickly insert one piece of bittersweet chocolate into the center of each cupcake.
Return the pan to the oven and bake until the cupcakes are well-risen and brown around the edges, 3-5 minutes more. At this point, mine were getting to be pretty toasted, but the chocolate piece in the middle did not melt so well.
Let the cupcakes cool briefly in the pan on a wire rack, about 5 minutes. Use a small spatula to transfer the cupcakes to plates and serve right away.
I packed mine into a tupperware for my sister to eat on the car ride home!
3 comments :
love miss you both!! hom nom
love! miss you both!
awesomeness!!
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