Moelleux au Chocolat

Before I get to this delicious recipe, I must say congrats to my daughter, Lindsey, and her fiance Thomas!  Newly engaged, such exciting news!  Cheers!  We also met Thomas' parents, what an interesting and fun couple!

We were gone for a few days checking out some colleges for my younger daughter, Katherine.  That was fun! 

Lindsey lives in Columbus, so the hostess-with-the-mostest, had us over for dinner Friday night!  My son, Mark, was even able to drive in from his college!

Thomas grilled delicious steaks.  Lindsey made the most incredible pasta primavera (recipe to come soon), and she even made it without cheese, just for my daughter Katherine!  There was also asparagus (one of my favorites).  Oh, I almost forgot the delicous appetizer, mushroom caps (also recipe to come soon)!

But the best was the "Moelleux au Chocolat"!  Translation, hot gooey yummy chocolate cake!  Lindsey even made a homemade caramel sauce to go over it!

She said she gets most of her recipes from cookingchannel.com (and yes, she does get a few from me)!

Here it is (oh, and her fiance described this cake as "life changing"!  Love that guy!

By the way, I ate this so quick I didn't get a chance to take a pic of it, but I did manage to save some of the yummy center!

Ingredients:

for the cakes:

2/3 c butter, plus more for greasing
4 oz dark chocolate, chopped
4 eggs
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c all-purpose flour

for the caramel sauce:

2/3 c sugar
1/4 c butter
1/3 c plus 2 T cream
squirt lemon juice, to taste

Directions for the cake:

Butter 6 ramekins & line with a disk of parchment paper, & then butter the parchment.  In a double boiler, bowl or saucepan, very gently melt the butter & chocolate together over a water bath.  In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs & sugar until thick, pale & ribbony.  Beat in the flour, and finally the chocolate mixture.  Pour the mixture into the ramekins & chill.

Just before serving, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet, and bake until the top is set, 12-14 minutes.  Remove, let sit 5 minutes, before unmolding onto plates.  Serve with caramel sauce, or icecream would be great too!

For the caramel sauce:

Add a spoonful of water to the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat & boil to caramel, approx 5 minuts.  Do not stir with a spoon.  Swirl the saucepan over the heat until desired color is achieved.  Don't let it get too dark!  Stir in the butter to melt (careful -it will splatter!), then the cream.  Add a squirt of lemon juice, to taste.

Enjoy!

Jen