Molten chocolate cake

Started with a conversation Sunday night, after Kabeezy's show, about the molten chocolate cake at Chilli's. Fast forward to a Monday in office, kinda bored with work, need a new recipe to bake, but don't want to go out shopping for ingredients. Voila, the chocolate cake pops into my head, find a recipe where I have everything at home already, and I'm all set to bake!

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 eggs, whole
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

In a double boiler heat the butter and chocolate, until the chocolate melts.
Meanwhile, beat the 2 eggs, 2 yolks, and sugar, until light and thick. To this add the flour and beat quickly.
Pour in the egg mixture to the chocolate, and beat, just to combine. Make sure the air in the batter remains so whisk briskly but quick.

Butter and lightly flour 6 4-ounce ramekins. I used cocoa powder instead of flour, powdered sugar is a good idea too (since you'll be serving the cakes upside down). Pour the batter into the ramekins.

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake the cakes for just 6-7 minutes, until the sides are firm but center is still soft and wobbly.

Pull it out, let it sit for a minute. Knife the sides loose and invert onto a plate. Serve immediately.

Once in the ramekins you can leave them in the fridge for a few hours too. When baking either bake for a little longer, or let it come to room temperature before baking.

I however had to leave it in the fridge for a whole day, since the certain someone these were baked for couldn't have it yesterday. So will find out once I go home tonight, as to how they turn out. I wish I'd taken a picture of the first trial cake I baked yesterday. But hopefully the ones today come out just as great!

Chocolate FTW!

Update: The cake left unbaked in the fridge came out great too! Whats more, I even tried heating one up later in the microwave, and the center remained soft and liquidy!

Options:
1. To bake and serve immediately: Bake it until the center just stops being wobbly. This leaves the center liquidy, but just the right amount (about 7-8 minutes when fresh, 9-10 minutes when pulled out of the fridge).
2. To bake, store in the fridge, heat up again in a microwave later and serve: Bake it but pull it out a little earlier than 1, i.e. when the center is still wobbly. Let it sit out a bit, cover and put it back in the fridge when room temperature. Before serving, heat for about 20 seconds in a microwave. Leaving it a little less cooked in the oven makes for it to come out perfect after the microwaving.

I left the unbaked cake in the fridge for about 4-5 days, and they still stayed good. Baked cake for about 1-2 days.

And the certain someone they were baked for enjoyed it thoroughly too! Hooray! :D

Monday night cooking

Walking back from work on a Monday evening, stopping to check if all's well with your car, only to realize that it was broken-into. Again. When you just got the same window fixed less than 2 weeks back. Not the best mood to be in while starting to cook for the night. Even plans of making dessert wasn't enough to cheer me up. What did the trick, was cooking with no recipe, no measurements, and ending up with perfect dinner!

Main course: Spaghetti in Alfredo sauce, with a side of asparagus and snap peas

Sure, sounds Italian and boring enough. But not when the Alfredo sauce doesn't come from a bottle, but is made based just on taste, one step at a time.

Started with saute-ing cut asparagus and snap peas in olive oil with chopped garlic, while pondering what to have it with. Spaghetti comes to the rescue, but sans sauce. Didn't have any of the red-pasta-sauce-in-a-bottle in hand, since I would like to think I've moved on from busy grad-school-cooking days. Only usable thing in the fridge - milk. Alfredo sauce, ofcourse. Next step, google for Alfredo sauce recipes, as usual, hoping you'll have all ingredients in hand. But the only ones I find require either heavy-cream, or cream-cheese, neither of which I have, leading me back to depressed 'forget the sauce I'll just eat it dry' mode.

Although thankfully, this time I wasn't willing to settle for an anything-edible dinner. Which reminded me how the recipe for dessert called for egg yolks, which would leave me with egg whites I didn't know what to do with, again. Brain-wave - egg-whites in the alfredo sauce!

Hence:
In a pan heat and melt butter, add milk, some grated parmesan cheese, and some whipped egg white. Stir together until it starts to thicken, add random herbs (I had a herbs mix with oregano, fennel, rosemary, thyme and dill), some salt and lots of pepper. Throw in the cooked and strained spaghetti, and dinner is served!

Finishing up with the dessert - molten chocolate cake - only made the night even more perfect. There really is nothing food can't do.