Don't Forget Delicious!

Savory Corn Waffles with Spicy Maple Butter Sauce

2012-07-19T13:09:04Z

The Event

Apparently, I work best with a deadline. I always have great intentions to post every week, but life keeps getting in the way, and the next thing I know, weeks have flown by! But a deadline can sometimes kick my butt into getting something done in a timely fashion.

Take this cool Cooking Improv Challenge, hosted by Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, for instance. What a great idea this is! Each month, she provides a theme, and anyone who’d like to participate gets to go wild, making up whatever kind of recipe that makes their skirt fly up, as long as it fits the theme. As soon as I heard about this, I knew I wanted to play along.

This month’s theme is Corn and Butter. Perfect for a steamy July, don’t you think? Delicious sweet corn has just started showing up lately, and we are loving it. Corn is so versatile, too. Did you know you can make ice cream out of corn? Souffles? All KINDS of fun things can be done with corn.

The Recipe

My first thought was to do a dessert, just because it’s less obvious. However, it seems as though I’ve done nothing *but* desserts on the blog lately, so I decided instead to go for a delicious yet healthy savory dish. I had a feeling this recipe was going to work out, as soon as I came up with it. But WOW! It came out so amazingly good the first time through that we were practically licking our plates.

My boyfriend, who is notoriously picky, was raving after the first bite. Then closing his eyes with each bite to savor. What more can a cook ask for, than a reaction like that?

Plus, these waffles are super quick and easy to make. Just mix up the batter, put the first one in, and clean up the minimal mess while it’s baking. By the time you are ready to serve, you can sit down to eat with everyone else, with no mess hanging over your head. As an extra added bonus, waffles freeze great, so you can save any extras for a quick and easy dinner on another night. Or maybe brunch on the weekend.

The Spicy Maple Butter sauce I made for this is yummy too, but we actually loved it best with just a fried or poached egg on top. Cut up the egg and let the warm, runny yolk run down over the waffle….. it just doesn’t get any more satisfying than that.

So, thanks Kristen, for coming up with such a fun event. I can’t wait to see what everyone else came up with for Corn and Butter! (see the blog hop links at the bottom of this post for other posts).

Savory Corn Waffles with Spicy Maple Butter Sauce

Makes 4 belgian style waffles (a regular waffle iron will probably yield more)

Adapted from Corn and Cheddar Waffles

NOTE: I use organic ingredients whenever possible. So, even though each ingredient does not list "organic," you can assume it is.

Ingredients

Waffles

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1%. Any kind will work, probably including non-dairy types)
1 large egg
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup corn
1/2 cup (about 1.5 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1 link andouille sausage, minced (I used Applegate Organic Chicken Spicy Andouille sausage), optional (if you choose not to use this, substitute a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes. The sausage adds a lot of flavor).
4 eggs, fried or poached, optional

Spicy Maple Butter Sauce

4 tablespoons lightly salted butter, melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoons hot sauce, or more to taste

Instructions

Waffles

Heat oven to 200ºF. Heat waffle iron.

Whisk together flours, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. In a large measuring cup, whisk together milk, egg and melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined - do not over mix. Gently fold in the corn, shredded cheese and sausage.

Fold in corn, cheese and sausage.

Spray waffle iron lightly with cooking spray (or brush with oil). Pour batter onto iron as per your iron's instructions (mine takes about 1/4 cup) and spread to edges with a spatula. Close iron and cook per your iron's instructions, until waffles are golden brown.

Transfer to heated oven to keep warm until finished baking. Repeat with remaining batter, misting grates with cooking spray before each new batch.

Spicy Maple Butter Sauce

Whisk butter and maple syrup until thoroughly blended. Add 1/2 tsp of hot sauce and whisk until well mixed. Taste and add more sauce, to desired heat level.

Serve

Serve waffles warm, topped with fried or poached egg, spicy maple butter sauce, or plain maple syrup.

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/savory-corn-waffles-with-spicy-maple-butter-sauce-2/

The Stats

This recipe is multi-grain, with a good hit of fiber, high protein and basically just real, wholesome ingredients. One belgian waffle is very filling, especially with an egg on top, so I can eat this for dinner with no guilt whatsoever. The butter sauce is a little less virtuous, but still not bad, especially if made with butter made from pastured cows and organic maple syrup.

Nutritional Information calculated using Calorie-Count

	WAFFLES:	BUTTER SAUCE:
Calories:	443	128
Fat:	19.8 g	11.5 g
Cholesterol:	107 mg	31 mg
Sodium:	521 mg	99 mg
Sugar:	10 g	6 g
Carbohydrates:	51.1 g	6.7 g
Fiber:	4.6 g	0
Protein:	18 g	0.1 g

Cooking Improv Blog Hop

Brooklyn Blackout Cakelets

2012-06-20T15:10:38Z

It’s time once again for a Slice of Cake (aka The Cake Slice monthly baker’s group)! This month’s cake is the Brooklyn Blackout Cake, which is a cake that was once made by now-defunct Ebinger’s Bakery, but which lives on in Brooklyn’s fondest memories. Apparently, lots of people have attempted to recreate the cake, with varying levels of success. This recipe comes from Tish Boyle’s The Cake Book and is her version of this three-layer devil’s food cake, filled with creamy chocolate pudding, and topped with chocolate frosting and cake crumbs.

Since we’re still trying to get in shape here at the DFD house, I pondered how to make this big, gorgeous, tempting chocolate cake a little less dangerous. With all that chocolate in there, tweaking the flours and butters (as I did with the Cinnamon Swirl Cake) wouldn’t make that much of a dent. So instead I just decided to limit our exposure – I left the recipe alone, but only made 1/3 of it AND made that into small, individual cakelets, rather than one cake.

I used a mini-loaf pan to make these instead of a regular cake pan, but you could definitely do the same with a muffin pan, or a smaller cake pan. Because I did these as minis, I couldn’t really do the 3 layer action, but 2 layers worked just fine. My boyfriend has been scarfing them all week.

This was an easy cake to make and quite delicious. The cake (moist and chocolatey) and the pudding (creamy and chocolatey) are each wonderful in their own right and could definitely be used separately. I got my frosting a little too stiff and would add a touch of milk next time to smooth it out, but otherwise was also easy and yummy. This is another keeper (so far, everything from this book is) and someday, I will be doing the full blown 3 layer version of this cake, for sure.

As you can see, my biggest problem was that we were in such a rush to eat them, that I barely took time to slap them on a plate to get a picture.

Brooklyn Blackout Cakelets

Makes 6 cakelets

Adapted from Brooklyn Blackout Cake recipe from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

This is about 1/3 of the original recipe.

Ingredients

CAKE:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg
1/2 large egg yolk
1/3 cup buttermilk
1.3 oz unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup hot coffee

FILLING:

1 large egg yolks
1 1/2 oz sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 pinch kosher salt
1/3 cup water
3 Tbsp + 2 tsp heavy cream
1 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used chips)
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

FROSTING:

1.3 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1.84 oz unsalted butter, softened
2.5 oz powdered sugar
milk, as needed, to thin the frosting (optional)

Instructions

MAKE THE CAKE

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of two round cake pans or, mini-loaf pans or muffin pans.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of your mixer. Add the sugar and, mix at low speed with the paddle until blended.

In another bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolk, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract. With your mixer on low, add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients in a steady steam. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then beat at medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the hot coffee, mixing just until blended. Remove the bowl from the stand and stir the batter up from the bottom of the bowl a few times to thoroughly blend it. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, dividing it evenly and smoothing the tops.

Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes (15-20 mins for minis), until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Check early - overbaking makes dry cakes. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.

Invert the cakes onto the racks and cool completely.

MAKE THE FILLING

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt with a stand or handheld mixer at medium speed until pale, about 1 minute.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and cream to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and temper the egg mixture by whisking in about half of the hot cream mixture. Whisk this mixture back into the remaining cream mixture in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Continue to boil, whisking, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until completely melted.

Press the filling through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cover the surface of the pudding with plastic wrap (or parchment paper) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until chilled.

MAKE THE FROSTING

Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave or over a double boiler. Be careful not to overheat - burned chocolate is ruined and cannot be saved. Set aside to cool until tepid, but still liquid.

Beat the butter at medium speed with your stand or handheld mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate, then beat until well-blended and creamy, about 1 minute.

ASSEMBLE THE CAKE

Using a long serrated knife, cut each cake layer in half horizontally, to make 4 layers. Reserve one layer for the crumb topping.

If doing minis, cut each mini cake in half. Trim edges and tops for uniformity and use these for the crumb topping layer..

Place a cake layer, cut side up, on a serving plate. Whisk the chilled pudding until smooth. Using a small offset metal spatula, spread half of the filling over the layer. Top with another cake layer and spread it with the remaining filling. Top with a third cake layer, smooth side up. (If doing minis, divide pudding evenly among however many you have. Mine made 6.)

Break half of the reserved cake layer into large pieces and place them in the bowl of a food processor (save the remainder of the cake layer for snacking). Process the cake to fine crumbs, and set aside. Or, use excess crumbs from minis in the same way.

Using a narrow metal spatula, frost the top and sides of the cake with the frosting. Pat a generous amount of cake crumbs onto the sides of the cake, pressing them lightly into the frosting. Sprinkle the remaining cake crumbs over the top of the cake. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/brooklyn-blackout-cakelets/

Salted Rumpsteak and Roasted Potatoes with Chimchurri Sauce

2013-01-15T20:47:11Z

In an effort to improve my photography, I am participating in the Donna Hay Styling & Photography Challenge 2012, hosted by Simone at JungleFrog Cooking. Simone is an incredible food photographer herself, and this is one way she helps the rest of us try to get better.

Each month, Simone selects a recipe from the Donna Hay magazine. Then, participants attempt to recreate the photo as closely as possible.

The Challenge

This month’s challenge gave us a choice of two images – Salted Rump Steak and Roasted Potatoes with Chimichurri Sauce (photos by Ben Dearnley). We could choose to recreate either recipe, or both. Here are the images we had to choose from:

Salted Rumpsteak from Donna Hay Magazine. Photo by Ben Dearnley.

Roasted Potatoes with Chimichurri Sauce from Donna Hay Magazine. Photo by Ben Dearnley.

My Results

As you can see, two very delicious looking pictures with lots of interesting textures, props and lighting. I had serious doubts my feeble photography skills could even come close!

But, I persevered. I decided to do the steak picture, since I have a round pizza stone that looks much like the stone in the picture. I don’t have anything even remotely like that rack the potatoes are in, so I wrote that one off right off the bat (well, the picture. Of course, I made the potatoes anyway. Yum!).

Making the recipes was quick and easy (my notes about the recipes are below the recipes,at the bottom of this post). Setting up the pictures – not so much.

I didn’t have anything like that marble-y looking background, so at first I just set my stone on my wooden kitchen table. A couple of shots immediately showed that that totally changed the whole color and feel of the shot. I pondered for a while, trying to find something to use as a background. Finally, I realized that my kitchen floor was about as close as I was going to come! So, I pushed the table out of the way, and moved the whole thing to the floor.

One major obstacle was the size of my baking stone, which is much larger than the stone in the original picture. This meant that my skewers were shorter than the stone (instead of longer), and if I just put the steak on there, it left too much stone all the way around. So, I moved everything on to the stone. That worked fairly well, I thought. Not exactly like the original, but close enough for government work.

After much tweaking and moving and cursing and trying to get a clean, clear, directly overhead shot without a tall tripod, I finally ended up with this picture. I tried my darnedest to get that little oil ring next to the jar of chimichurri, but the stone just sucked it up too fast. After the fact, I now notice that I’ve got the knife in the completely wrong place. But here’s the kicker – I was fussing so much with the steak and the chimichurri sauce and the knife and all that – I totally forgot to put the potatoes in the second jar!!

Salted Rumpsteak from Donna Hay Magazine. Photo by Ben Dearnley.

Salted Steaks photo by Valerie Williams

I still cannot believe I did that. Sigh. What a dork.

Oh well. For a first try, I think it came out pretty well and I certainly learned a lot, which is, of course, the point! The biggest lesson? I need to spend a lot more time before hand thinking about how I want my pictures to look and styling the whole thing. Usually I’m so rushed trying to get a decent shot before the food gets cold, that my pictures come out kinda lame. Huge opportunities for improvement! This was a fun and interesting exercise and I’m looking forward to the next challenge.

The Recipes

Salted Steaks

Adapted from Salted Rumpsteak, Donna Hay Magazine.

Ingredients

2 boneless ribeye steaks
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup kosher salt
black pepper

Instructions

Thread the steak onto metal skewers and rub both sides with olive oil. Place on a baking tray and cover completely with salt. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

Lightly rinse with running water to remove the salt, pat dry, then sprinkle with pepper. Heat a grill pan or BBQ over high heat. Add the skewers and cook for 7 minutes each side for medium rare or until cooked to your liking. Serve with the chimichurri saue (see below)

Notes

I don't know if the salting really achieved anything, but the steaks were delicious and easy to make. I actually grilled my steaks, then finished them in the oven because they were very thick.

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/salted-rumpsteak-and-roasted-potatoes-with-chimchurri-sauce/

Roasted Potatoes with Chimchurri Sauce

Adapted from Roasted Potatoes with Chimichurri Sauce, Donna Hay Magazine

Ingredients

POTATOES:

1 pound russet potatoes (or other starchy potato), chopped into bite size chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper

CHIMICHURRI SAUCE:

1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped oregano
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 F. Place the chopped potato into a large saucepan of cold water over high heat and bring to the boil. Add salt to taste. Cook for 10 minutes or until the potato is just tender.

Drain, returning potatoes to the pan and cook for an additional minute to remove excess moisture. Shake the pan to fluff the potato. Pour potatoes out onto a baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 40-45 minutes or until crisp and golden. Serve the potatoes with the chimichurri sauce.

SAUCE:

To make the chimichurri sauce, place the parsley, oregano, rosemary, paprika, chilli flakes, garlic, bay leaf, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside.

Notes

This was an easy and yummy way to get potatoes with a crispy outer shell. My boyfriend, who is usually lukewarm about potatoes, loved them.

The chimichurri sauce is delicious and would be great on almost anything!

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/salted-rumpsteak-and-roasted-potatoes-with-chimchurri-sauce/

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake (Lightened)

2012-04-20T13:43:40Z

Have I ever mentioned that I love cinnamon?
Oh, do I. I love, love, love it!

So I was very happy to see that this cake was chosen to be April’s Cake Slice cake – the Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake. NOW we’re talkin’!

The Problem

As I’ve mentioned previously, however, we are working on getting healthier at my house. Learning to eat real, and at the same time trying to lose a little weight. That made this oh-so-tempting Cinnamon Swirl cake a bit of a problem. When confronted with a delicious cake like that, just sitting there on the counter…. calling to us to eat it….

Well. I don’t think my willpower is *quite* that strong.

So, a little tinkering on this recipe was in order. Judging by the other bakers in this group, the original recipe is just about perfect as it is, if you’re not worried about the calories. But at my house, a few changes made this a recipe we could enjoy without guilt (and who doesn’t want that?).

The Tinkering

One of the first things I decided was to do baby bundts instead of a full-sized bundt – automatic portion control. I know my man, and when cutting a slice from a full-sized cake, well, let’s just say that the number of servings indicated on the recipe is likely to be less in real life. So, individual servings takes care of that little problem.

Next, I swapped in white whole wheat flour in place of the all purpose. This added a little nutrition in the form of whole grains and fiber, but did you also know that white whole wheat flour is just a little bit lower in calorie than all purpose flour? Bonus! I left the cake flour alone, so as to hopefully keep from altering the tenderness *too* much. Next time, I may experiment with some whole wheat pastry flour to see how that affects the texture.

I reduced the butter in the cinnamon swirl by half, and it worked fine. Still delicious as could be. Oh, and I increased the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp (original recipe only calls for 1/4), just ’cause I love it. Then, I swapped in greek yogurt for some of the butter, and reduced the sugar just a bit, in the cake batter recipe. Still came out plenty tasty.

Nothing too drastic, but enough to drop the calories per serving by about half and increase the nutritional value a bit. Oh yeah – I left out the orange zest too, just because I didn’t have any (we didn’t miss it, though I’m sure it would be lovely).

The Outcome

A dense, tight crumb (as a pound cake should be), with a lovely cinnamony, slightly crunchy layer in the middle – this is right up my alley. Delicious by itself, topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, or with some vanilla ice cream on the side, it’s a bit of sweet happiness at the end of a meal, with no guilt to dim the glow.

Once again, I’ll tell you that this is a good book. Every recipe I’ve tried so far has been delicious (even with my tinkering). So I’m not going to provide the original recipe.

Instead, here’s my somewhat healthified version. Zapped in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and topped with powdered sugar for after dinner, or just plain in our lunch boxes, we’ve been enjoying these little baby bundts all week.

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake (Lightened)

12-16 servings

Ingredients

CINNAMON SWIRL:

1/2 cup (2.1 oz) white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup firmly packed (2.5 oz) light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt (I use kosher)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

CAKE:

2 cups (8.5 oz) white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (2 oz) cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I use kosher)
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups greek yogurt (or 1.5 cups applesauce)
8 oz sugar
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

Set a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 F. Grease and flour a cupcake tin, mini-bundt pan, or a 10" regular bundt pan.

CINNAMON SWIRL:

Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add melted butter and mix until well blended and crumbly. If necessary, use your fingers to break up large clumps so that the entire mixture is relatively even in texture.

MAKE THE BATTER:

Into a medium bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom. Whisk until well blended and set aside.

Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat softened butter at medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until very creamy. Slowly add the sugar, then beat at medium-high until very well blended, light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Reduce speed back to medium and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each and scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Reduce speed to low and add your flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, and mixing until just combined (don't overmix).

FOR A FULL-SIZED BUNDT (approx. 12 larger servings)

If you're doing a full-sized bundt, pour half of the batter into your prepared pan and tap pan against counter to even the top. Sprinkle the cinnamon swirl mix evenly over the batter. Top with dollops of remaining batter, then lightly smooth with a spatula into an even layer (without messing up the swirl layer, as much as possible).

FOR BABY BUNDTS (approx. 16 smaller servings):

Using a disher, or a measuring cup, scoop about 1/4 cup batter into each tin opening. Spoon about 1 tablespoon cinnamon swirl mixture over each (then go back and add a little to each until it's all used up). Then top each with another 1/4 cup (or so) batter. Carefully smooth so that it completely covers the cinnamon swirl.

BAKE:

Bake a full-sized bundt for 65 - 75 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

For baby bundts, bake for 20-25 minutes (begin testing at 20 minutes) or until a skewer comes out of the center clean.

For either, after removing from oven, cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto the rack and cool completely.

Dust the cake lightly with powdered sugar right before serving.

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/cinnamon-swirl-buttermilk-pound-cake-lightened/

Nutritional Information calculated using Calorie-Count

	Original Recipe (12 servings)	Lightened Recipe (12 servings, full sized bundt)	Lightened Recipe (16 servings, baby bundts)
Calories:	448	321	243
Fat:	19.9 g	11.8 g	8.6 g
Cholesterol:	102 mg	73 mg	59 mg
Sodium:	307 mg	250 mg	187 mg
Sugar:	40 g	27.3 g	22.3 g
Carbohydrates:	63 g	47.9 g	38 g
Fiber:	0.9 g	2.7 g	2.3 g
Protein:	5.5 g	7.6 g	4.7 g

Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes

2012-03-20T14:55:11Z

This month’s Cake Slice baking group cake is a fun and easy one – Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes.

Compared to some of the others in the book (The Cake Book by Tish Boyle), this recipe is pretty quick and simple. There are only 6 ingredients, all normal pantry and fridge items. It really didn’t take much time at all to put the batter together, and it bakes up in only 10-15 minutes (your times may vary).

Interestingly, each baker found this cake a little different – for some, it was a molten cake, with a flowing liquid center. For others, it is just a delicious little cake. For me, it was not liquidy, which is exactly how I prefer it (I’ve never been a fan of the molten thing).

I only filled my ramekins about halfway because I wanted to make smaller portions (trying to watch the calories, you know). This worked out fine. The little cakes rose up above the ramekins anyway, making me wonder if filling them more would even work, but then they did sink as they cooled. Perhaps filling them more would have resulted in a denser cake, rather than a higher-rising one, but we liked them this way just fine.

The smaller portion was perfect for me – this is a delicious, chocolatey cake with a shattering, crisp crust from the sugar-dusted sides of the ramekins in which they are baked. We tried them dusted with powdered sugar (yum), with a dollop of meringue-style whipped topping (also yum), and also topped with some mini-marshmallows, quickly browned under the broiler (again, yum).

This recipe would also probably work great for entertaining – just make up your batter and fill your ramekins ahead of time. After 10-15 minutes in the oven, just serve them directly from the ramekins, or inverted onto a plate or bowl. You could make them even smaller to stretch the recipe farther, if needed, and to make them easy to handle for guests.

This recipe will definitely be going into my keeper file and will probably see lots of use. Thanks Tish!

Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes

Serves 6-8

slightly adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

NOTE: I use organic ingredients whenever possible. So, even though each ingredient does not list "organic," you can assume it is.

Ingredients

4 large eggs separated
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
6.5 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2.5 oz milk chocolate, chopped
2 oz butter cut into tablespoons
3.5 oz (1/2 cup) sugar divided

Instructions

Place the rack in the center and preheat your oven to 375 F. Thoroughly butter the insides of 6-8 ramekins, then dust the cups with sugar and tap out the excess. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.

Combine butter and chocolate in a large bowl (much larger than you need for the chocolate - you'll be adding big, fluffy whipped egg whites later). Melt the chocolate and butter together, either in the microwave in short 30-40 second blasts (mine took just 2 blasts) stirring well in between each, or over a simmering pot of water. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk in 1/4 cup of sugar, then whisk in the egg yolks.

Using the whisk attachment with your electric mixer, beat egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar at high speed until the whites just begin to form soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar slowly, then beat at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in three parts. Divide the batter among the prepared cups.

Bake the cakes, on the baking sheet, for 12-15 minutes, until they are cracked on top (the centers should still be moist - a toothpick won't come out clean). Let the cakes stand for 1 minute before unmolding.

Run a thing paring knife around the edge of each cake to loosen it from the cup, then invert onto a plate or into a small bowl and serve warm.

These store well in an airtight container. Heat in the microwave for 10-15 seconds before serving, or if doing the marshmallow topping, the broiler will heat it nicely for you).

Serving Options:

- Sift a light dusting of powdered sugar on top.

- Sift a light dusting of powdered sugar, then an even lighter dusting of cocoa powder on top.

- Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside

- Serve with a dollop of whipped topping

- Top with mini-marshmallows and broil just until they are browned

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2012/individual-warm-chocolate-cakes/