Chocolate lava cake

I wanted to make a chocolate lava cake the other day, but we don't have little soufflé moulds, so I just made one cake, in our smallest pyrex bowl. It was really delicious, and got a full-star Ed-rating. As pictured below.

Luckily, I saved the cake from Ed before he actually took a bite out. I highly recommend making this.

• Chocolate lava cake
• The recipe is from here, the NYT molten chocolate magic. I cut it in half.
• 
  
• 1/4C butter (half a stick)
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2Tbs sugar
• 1tsp flour

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. As it melts, beat together the egg and egg yolk and sugar. Let the chocolate cool just enough so it won't cook the eggs, and then mix it in. Beat in the flour, until just combined.

Butter the mold, and dust it with cocoa powder. Pour in the batter. Cook at 450 for 8 minutes, until it is just set.

Invert the mold, dump the cake on a plate, and dust with powdered sugar. Feel free to garnish with raspberries and whipped cream =)

Popovers, update

So, we figured out a great popover recipe over last winter, but we've been tweaking. Basically, they weren't always rising as high as we thought they should be rising, and after adjusting every variable in the equation, I finally stumbled upon the reason. The ingredients just have to be warm enough. Also, you can't beat the batter too much, or you'll work the flour too much and it'll be all smooth and bread-like and not at all shaggy and rough like it should be.

The original recipe, which I'll retype below just for ease of use, is still a winner. These are pretty much my favorite bready thing to go along with dinner, and I think Ed's too.

Popovers

2 eggs, beaten

1 tbs butter

1C milk

1C flour

1 big pinch of kosher salt

Preheat your oven to 425F. Grease 8 muffin tins really well. Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the milk. Put that in the microwave too, until it's warm to the touch. Add the eggs, and whisk this mixture really, really, thoroughly.

Basically, you want the ingredients to be warm, so that when the popovers hit the very-hot oven, all the oven's heat will go into puffing them up, not into warming up the batter. You want the eggs very well whisked, because they're most of what provide the structure for the puffing action.

Add the flour and the salt to the liquids. Whisk to combine. Pour the batter into the greased muffin tins, 3/4-all the way full.

Cook at 425 for 15 minutes, without opening the oven door. After 15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 and cook another 20 minutes. Consume!

Puffy, golden, shaggy, and delicious.

Look at all that custard-y hole-y goodness! Yummm.

Also, the meal shown with these delicious morsels was a turkey, white bean, kale soup. With caramelized onions and lots of garlic. That was also tasty.

Gingerbread latte

The other day, after some really fun orienteering training, Becky suggested that we stop by a Starbucks that was just around the corner from the park we were in. I think she used some excuse like "hot chocolate is a great recovery food", but I don't need much convincing when it comes to hot sweet drinks after a run. Anyway, I was all set to get a hot chocolate, when I saw the gingerbread latte on the board. I've never actually had one of those seasonal drinks from Starbucks, normally I don't go in there for anything other than a refill of my coffee mug, but I figured hey, if Becky says it's good, I may as well try it.

Holy crap! Those things are amazing! No wonder the world is addicted to $4 seasonal coffees!

Becky has no idea the damage she has wrought. Not only has she introduced me to something delicious, but she introduced me to something delicious that is too expensive for my budget, and that is only available part of the year. This is Not Good.

Luckily, I'm not the only person with this dilemma. I found this site. I made their gingerbread latte, with a couple tweaks, and it was delicious. Crisis averted! Now I can have my very own 300-calorie coffee drinks whenever I want one! Making an entire latte is probably too much work for an average morning, but I do think the syrup will be good just in normal coffee.

No Ed-rating for this, although maybe he'll try it in hot chocolate. He'll probably just turn up his nose, though, he thinks addictions are for wusses.

Gingerbread syrup
2C water
1.5C sugar
2 tsp molasses
2-1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp whole cloves

(Yes, I use imitation vanilla. It tastes fine)

Put everything in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring somewhat continuously. After 10min, I tasted it, and decided that it was as spicy as I liked it, so I strained the syrup through a strainer into a measuring cup. Then I put it back in the pot, sans peppercorns and cloves, and continued to simmer for another 10 minutes, until the liquid ran off the spoon in a continuous stream, rather than in drops. It made just about two cups of liquid, so I put most of it in canning jars and just let them seal themselves.

The result is a sweet, spicy, flavorful syrup. Most delicious! Maybe it isn't exactly what you get at Starbucks, but it was a helluva lot cheaper, and tastes good enough to do the trick when I'm craving a $4 fancy coffee.

It made a really dark syrup. I'm going to pretend that makes it even more delicious. To make the latte, I microwaved ~1/2C of 2% milk until it was foamy, poured in the coffee, and then added probably 2tbs of syrup. Whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon completed the fruity tooty drink!

And of course, then came the test- is it possible to whip just two tablespoons of heavy cream? The answer is: barely. And it makes a mess.