Monthly Archives January 2019

The fallen chocolate cake, or melted chocolate cake, is an underbaked mound in the center of intense chocolate and butter cake. We wanted to make this restaurant menu standard a practical recipe for home cooks.

Beat the egg whites and yolks separately, then fold them together as some recipes indicate, yielded a fluffy cake; we found that beating the eggs with sugar into a mousse and then folding them in melted chocolate resulted in cakes with the rich, chewy texture we wanted. Barely 2 tablespoons of flour managed to hold the soufflé-type cakes together – more and the cakes were dry with no fluid center.

Finally, we wanted to make sure that these decadent desserts arrived at the table hot and still melted; Luckily, we found we could make the dough ahead of time, by refrigerating the filled ramekins until ready to use, then placing them in the oven to bake during dinner. You can replace semi-sweet chocolate with semi-sweet chocolate; the flavor will be slightly more intense.

FALLEN CHOCOLATE CAKES

Servings: 8

Start to finish: 1 hour

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

4 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, room temperature

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Confectionery sugar

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 F. Grease eight 6-ounce ramekins and sprinkle with cocoa. Arrange the ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet. Heat chocolate in a large bowl at 50% power for 2 minutes. Stir chocolate, add butter and microwave on 50% power for 2 more minutes, stopping to stir after 1 minute. If the chocolate is not yet fully melted, microwave for an additional 30 seconds; put aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the eggs, yolk, granulated sugar, vanilla and salt on high speed until the eggs are pale yellow and have almost tripled. volume. (The egg mousse will form a ribbon that will rest on the mixture for 5 seconds when it is drained from the whisk.) Scrape the egg mixture onto the chocolate mixture, then sprinkle flour on top. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg mixture and flour into the chocolate until the mixture is evenly colored.

Distribute the dough evenly among the prepared ramekins. (Unbaked cakes can be refrigerated for up to 8 hours. Return to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.) Bake until cakes have puffed about 1/2 inch above edges. ramekins, have a thin crust on top and shake lightly in the center when ramekins are shaken very gently, 12 to 13 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges of the ramekins to loosen the cakes. Invert each ramekin onto a plate and let stand until the cakes come off the ramekins, about 1 minute. Remove the ramekins, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

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Nutritional information per serving: Calories 318; 153 calories from fat; 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat; 0 g of trans fat); 161 mg of cholesterol; 108 mg of sodium; 33 g of carbohydrates; 6 g of fiber; 14 g of sugar; 9 g of protein.

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For more recipes, cooking tips, and ingredient and product reviews, visit https://www.americacastestkitchen.com. Find more recipes like fallen chocolate cakes in “The Perfect Cake”.

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America’s Test Kitchen provided this article to The Associated Press.