Friday, January 14, 2011

Soul meets Chocolate

Chocolate always makes you do funny things. At the age of seven, I remember having belted the title of 'Toblerone bar finisher' under the 3 hour category. At the age of seven years and 4 months, I remember belting yet another title of ' Blue package Chips Ahoy digester' under the 'Unsupervised afternoon of watching Cartoon Network' category.

Needless to say, at the age of eight, three cavities were discovered.

In the eleven years since then, nothing has changed. Except the exponential growth in the number of cavities and root canals I harbor. But now that most of my teeth are actually just cement, I no longer have any guilt downing a bar of Bournville and then accusing my mother of not sharing any.

Today, I finally tried my hands on Molten Chocolate lava cake.

Cracked edges

The first absolute thing you need to do, is to get yourself some ramekins.

Thanks to a wonderful post by the purple foodie, I realised Home Centre has stocks of ramekins. So, running to Oberoi Mall and slight pleas to parents landed me with these beautiful Pyrex ramekins.

Anyhow, things you'll need.

100 gm of dark cooking chocolate
60 gm of butter
1 egg
50 gm of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of flour(maida)
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

(These measurements make enough batter for filling in two ramekins, to make two individual molten chocolate lava cakes)

First things first, raid the utensils drawer. Find two bowls which just about fit one over the other. We need a make shift double broiler to melt the chocolate as always.

Fill the lower bowl with water, place the second bowl on top and dunk in all the chocolate bits.

Rawest form, for now


Switch on the gas. Low heat. Once the water starts to boil, the steam starts melting the chocolate. Now, plonk in the butter. Sweet glorious stick o' butter.


Pre melt phase

Now imagine a world where butter is used to bribe people. What a wonderful world that would be. There would be happy people everywhere dying of clogged arteries. Ah. Joy.

Once such happy thoughts are thought of, you will notice that the chocolate and butter of melted and combined to form the most sinful chocolate-y mess. Stir into the depths of the sin.

*Drool* Chocolate mess

Such beauty in this world.

Take the bowl of the heat and let the chocolate cool for a while.

In the mean time, pre heat the oven. at 150 degrees. for about 10 minutes.

By now, its time to bring out the big guys. The big reassuring bowls, I mean. No no, please don't call out your burly elder brother. He'll do nothing except finish off the chocolate. Believe you me.

Break a egg into the bowl.

Broken egg yolk.

Yes, the yolk is meant to be broken too. If you break the egg perfectly into the bowl, that signifies you have some unsettled childhood issues. No, really.

Okay, I kid.

Dump in the sugar, and the flour. The reason we barely use flour is because this cake is supposed to be molten, and not very stiff cake like.

Sugar me this

Grab a spoon or whisk, and whip it.
Add a few glorious drops of vanilla. (You really don't need to. The recipe didn't ask for it. But I am always apprehensive of a eggy smell in the cake )


Vanilla vanilla everywhere
Whisk it yet again. Now, add the now cool melted chocolate.

Feel free to lick the bowl after. Make a occasion of it really. Light a few candles, play some Norah Jones and sit on the couch and slowly lick of all the excess chocolate.

Unless you are as impatient as me, then you can go at it in the kitchen itself with chocolate dripping all over your shirt.

Chocolate engulfs

Fold the chocolate in.
Soon, you will see that the glorious chocolate will take over all. Chocolate wins, always. Its the cardinal rule.

Chocolate wins!


Pour the batter into the ramekins. Go on, taste the batter again. You know you want to.


Pre going into the oven phase

Now, place the ramekins in the oven. Bake for 20 min, at 200 degrees.

You know when its done when the top is a bit cracked like this.

Crack!

The ramekins will be piping hot, so you need to be careful.

These are one of those times in your life which your grandfather spoke to you about. A time when you have to exercise some serious patience. Like the few minutes before you can access your CAT result, or the moments before you can dig into hot chocolate gooey mess. It's the same thing they talk of.

Once it cools down a bit, the surface will fall a bit.

Cracked edges

This is it. Go go go! Attack with the spoon!

And then you dip in your spoon, and this bit of cake and this molten mass escapes. The joy.

Molten lava


Earlier that evening, I had tried my hand at a Pasta with a Walnut sauce. Despite my high hopes on this recipe, it was just barely okay. Which got me down a bit.


Pasta with walnut sauce


But then, molten chocolate came along and filled the void in my soul. It gave me hope. Hope that one day, an intriguing pasta recipe will turn out delicious. And hope that one day, I will click my food photos in natural light.

Like always.


Gooey mess.


And then, I took yet another bite. All was right with the world :)

6 Comments (+add yours?)

Agrimajoshua said...

Chocolate wins.. thats the cardinal rule!

Shraddha said...

But then, molten chocolate came along and filled the void in my soul. It gave me hope. Hope that one day, an intriguing pasta recipe will turn out delicious. And hope that one day, I will click my food photos in natural light.

Like the few minutes before you can access your CAT result, or the moments before you can dig into hot chocolate gooey mess. It's the same thing they talk of.

Only if more people understood these gospels!

As much as your food posts bring a smile to my face. They make me very uncomfortable and suddenly desirous.

Mithil Haldankar said...

Loved the molten cakes you made for us chinky! totally relished em :D
with the help of ur recipe, guess i'll attempt to make a similar cake someday!

Anonymous said...

God. And I thought Domino's wala Choco Lava Cake was the 'it' thing. Thank you. Now I can pester my mom! :D They look so bloody delicious!

Also, my mom makes the walnut sauce pasta. Not that I know how to make it. But it sure tastes good!

scarlet pimpernel said...

All i want to do now, is break in to your kitchen !

Nikesh Rathi said...

Well written ... Was amusing and interesting (and not to mention - tempting!) to read !!

- A random passerby