Recipe: Chocolate Sinkholes

I Love Desserts

Chocolate Sinkholes

Serves 6 to 8

This is hands-down my favorite geologically titled dessert, better than the famous Landslide Mud Puppy and even the highly touted (but often poorly executed) Tectonic Tea Cake with Fruity Fissures. These rather refined-looking and super-chocolatey little cakes are baked in individual custard cups. The pretty crisp top of each cake collapses under gentle pressure, revealing the molten chocolate batter inside. Serve these cakes warm, with one perfect coop of chocolate chip or vanilla ice cream in each sinkhole. Because this dessert is so intense, I give you two portion sizes—small and smaller. Believe me, even smaller is enough.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick)unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over simmering water, stirring occasionally. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

Sift the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. Beat the eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl until frothy. Stir in the chocolate mixture until incorporated. Then slowly stir in the sugar-flour mixture just until everything is combined.

Divide the batter among six 6-ounce or eight 5-ounce custard cups or ramekins. Arrange the custard cups in a baking dish or roasting pan and fill the dish with enough cool tap water to come one-third of the way up the sides of the cups. (This water bath assures that the bottom portions of the cakes remain in a batter state.)

Bake for 34 to 38 minutes, until the tops are firm. Serve warm.

Buy the Book!

from:
Desserts That Have Killed Better Men Than Me
by Jeremy Jackson
HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover; $14.95; 160 pages
ISBN 0060527129
Recipe reprinted by permission.