Molten Chocolate Cakes

Kris and I aren't much for the Valentines day thing, she used to work for FTD (not a good experience from day one) plus she is an accountant so 40 dollars spent on flowers just doesn't make sense.  For Valentines day we spent the day keeping the kids in separate corners of the house so they wouldn't fight so much then had a family dinner.  My gift to my beautiful wife... I let her sleep while the kiddos and I made dinner.  Miss Lu, Mr. Man and I made Blood Orange and Ginger Marinated Tuna Steaks, Ratatoulle and (this is the one for today) Molten Chocolate Cake.  

Much easier than I thought, we made the batter about a half an hour before we started dinner, actually Miss Lu did most of it and Mr. Man did some, I just handed them stuff one piece at a time.  Once we had the batter made I put it in the fridge until dinner was over.

Ingredients:

5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chips)

10 TBS Unsalted Butter

5 Caramel Candy pieces (store bought)

3 Large Eggs

3 additional Egg Yolks

1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Flour

Miss Lu separates eggs like a pro.

While melting the Chocolate, Butter and Caramel wisk the Eggs and Egg Yolks in a bowl to blend then add the Sugar, blend until absorbed.  When the chocolate, butter and caramel are all mixed set aside for about 5 minutes to temper then slowly add to the egg mixture.  After that is all incorporated add the flour then set aside covered (I put it in the fridge while we had dinner).

When we started dinner I put about 10 pieces of caramel into a small double boiler to let them temper and turned the oven on to 450.  Once dinner was finished I brought the double boiler to a boil then pored the batter into 5 ramekins (6 oz) and put them in the oven.  The cakes take about 12 to 15 minutes and it is hard to say when they are done... I took them out about a minute after the top turned from liquid to solid.  While they were in Miss Lu, Mr Man and I bruleed some strawberries, I cut a mess of them in half, sprinkled them with brown sugar and torched them with the kitchen torch (actually the kids did, I stood over them like a lunatic keeping the 3rd degree burns away for the evening).  Then we painted the plates with melted caramel, just a quick stripe for the ones that I photographed the others were a little more involved.

When the Cakes come out of the oven let them cool for a minute then use a knife to pull them from the side of the ramekin, dump them into your hand and set on the plates.  Garnish with a little powdered sugar. Oh and here is a little hint for eating... use the strawberries to scoop up the melty chocolate stuff.