Baked Chocolate

It's freezing cold out here  but it's not snowing and the sun is shining which is pretty confusing. I might a bit of a pessimist but who would want to laugh? Every single day I have to leave my warm house and walk to school. I could take a bus if I was able to leave the house before 7:45am (the school starts at 8:00am). Usually I start my "jurney" at 7:50am - very late - so I run (yes, I really "enjoy" this :D) and get to school at 8:02am. However, in a weather like this I pray my legs won't freeze and still I can't feel them for an hour after my arrival in school. Fortunately, Valentine's Day is here to warm us up :D If, of course, I believed in it...

I'm not saying Valentine's wrong but for me it's a day just like any other. Anyway, every excuse to bake and eat chocolate is awesome and I'm always the first one ready to use it :D Last year I used the day to bake these sinful extra chocolate cookies and this year I plan to use it to bake something even more chocolaty :D

I discovered this divine goodness in a magazine a long time ago. Originally it comes from Apetit. It's one of their older recipes and definitely deserves to be highlighted and remembered :) I don't like following recipes when baking because I know I won't follow it to the T and will add something here and there. Nevertheless, I managed not to change a thing (okay, except for one or two) in this one and I consider it my personal success.

As the title says, this is all about chocolate so the choice of it is extremely important for this recipe. You can read more about choc quiality here (6th paragraph). Here's a brief summary: no compound chocolate, chocolate flavoured chips and no milk chocolate. Reach for the bitter/dark chocolate in this case, really! The best would be chocolate containing 70% cocoa solids (Lindt or Ghirardelli are great choices) but if you don't like dark chocolate, go for chocolate with 50% cocoa solids but don't go any lower.

Another ingredient is cream liqueur. There's not too much of it in the baked chocolate but its taste is definitely noticeable. Those, who like alcohol, may feel free to use non cream baverage (such as rum) but I think it's quite overpowering and the taste of chocolate is left behind then. A great choice is liqueur similar to Baileys. I love using whisky cream because its taste is quite subtle and can be drunk on its own (I don't like alcohol - the taste of ethanol is usually just too strong). The best choice by far would probably be homemade eggnog or any other homemade cream liqueur! One last note about the amount, if you don't mind alcohol, use 4 tablespoons, if you make the dessert for kids/don't like alcohol, use only 2 tablespoons - this way I prepare it for my sister and she's always in heaven :D

The time of Valentine is getting closer and closer. I won't distract you any more so that you have enough time to make this chocolate gem for your girl/boyfriend (or yourself since it's very important to love your true self :D)!

Ingredients:
50g (1/5 cup) butter
100g (3.5 oz)good quality dark chocolate
1 egg yolk
1 egg
30g (1/6 cup) brown sugar
25g (1/4 cup) finely ground almonds
2-4 tbsp cream liqueur
butter for greasing
finely ground almonds for flouring


Directions:
Melt chocolate and butter in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and let cool (though make sure it doesn't thicken again :D).In a bowl, beat egg yolk, egg and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Gently stir in chocolate+butter mixture, almonds and cream liqueur. Stir gently but thoroughly just until incorporated. Divide the batter into butter and floured ramekins. In this phase you can (but definitely don't have to!) refrigerate the batter for up to 4 hours. Bake in preheated oven to 190C for 8-10 minutes. The surface has to thicken and rise but inside it has to remain runny. It takes exactly 9 minutes in my oven. Remove from oven and serve immediately (don't hesitate - the dessert deflates quickly).

• For the ultimate Valentine look, cover with heart stencil and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of the baked chocolate. Carefully remove the stencil (using tweezers helps a lot) and tadaaah :)

Verdict:
I can assure you that even your biggest enemy is gonna love you after eating this miracle :D In fairy tales there they have love poiton though it's pretty unavailable in real life because...we have baked chocolate! The one who invented this must have been a genius :) Chocolate paradise for chocoholics filled with chocolate pleasure with every teaspoon full of chocolate goodness. Wow, I have never used the word chocolate so many times in only one sentence :D As soon as you insert your teaspoom in it, the hot creamy melted chocolate leaks out with strong cocoa taste, the right amount of sweetness and suble liqueur flavour. That's quite an experience :)


Linked to:
These Chicks Cooked
Sweets for a Saturday