On the once-a-year occasion that encourages pure indulgence, a luxuriously rich chocolate cake does more to win a valentine than a box of bonbons ever could.
Creamy, dreamy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cakes come in all sorts of textures. They might be flourless, souffléed, or molten, and all showcase the tempting main ingredient that so many people love. Add butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes flour to create the batter.
Besides the rich and luxurious taste of chocolate, a good confection might be dense, airy, or literally oozing. We went into the kitchen and baked until we found three perfect desserts. One is called brownie custard because the texture teeters between fudgy brownie and thick custard. Another is a soufflé cake that is impressively creamy, light, and rich. The third is a molten confection that when pulled from the oven at just the right moment will spill gooey chocolate onto the plate. All three require spoons.
For baking, you'll need ramekins or custard cups because individual-size desserts are more endearing for an intimate party than a large, full-size round. (The little cakes come with the hidden benefit of portion control.)
There's a reason chocolate is so enthusiastically consumed on Valentine's Day. It contains two stimulants, theobromine and caffeine, which can elevate your mood, and another chemical, phenylethylamine (PEA), that has been shown to relieve depression. Ultimately, chocolate makes people feel good.
Molten chocolate cake has been popular for a dozen years and that doesn't seem to be changing. "It's a very sensuous dessert," says Dorian McCarron, who is known for his version. The executive chef of Delfino in Roslindale, and former pastry chef of Sharon's Coriander Bistro, has tweaked his recipe - "a warm cake with soft and gooey chocolate inside," he says - over the past few years.
An old French adage says that all a pastry chef needs is five ingredients: flour, eggs, butter, sugar - and skill. Says McCarron, "Well, I've just replaced skill with chocolate. Anyone can do this."
The recipe is easy to make, but the cakes must be baked just before serving. Just over 10 minutes in the oven will produce tender cakey shells enclosing soft, underbaked centers. Some chefs want a guaranteed oozing center so they rig the outcome by putting a chunk of chocolate or velvety truffle into the batter so it melts during baking, says the McCarron, who doesn't subscribe to this. The authentic way to make a molten cake comes from the right batter and a watchful eye on the baking time.
The same ingredients, minus the flour, go into Lumiere's chocolate soufflé cake. Michael Leviton, chef and owner of the West Newton restaurant, explains that what makes it light and poofy is beaten egg whites gently folded into the batter. His customers demand it. The ever-popular dessert "doesn't come off the menu," says the chef.
Leviton's choice of chocolate is Valrhona's Manjari (64 percent) made from cocoa beans from Madagascar. He likes their "winey, cherry flavor." Many good-quality chocolates have underlying tones of fruit, nut, coffee, or wine, which come from the beans themselves, reflecting how and where they're grown and roasted. The cocoa percentage, found on most wrappers, indicates the intensity of flavor. It represents the amount of cocoa liquor (the paste made from the ground beans) as a percentage of the total weight of the bar. The remaining amount is sugar, milk (in milk chocolate), and other additives. True bittersweets usually fall in the 55 percent to 70 percent range.
For McCarron's molten chocolate cake, the chef usually opts for a straightforward bittersweet (58 to 60 percent) from the Belgian maker Callebaut.
Slightly denser than Leviton's confection is the chocolate brownie custard from "The Dessert Bible" cookbook, which comes from Napa Valley's Tra Vigne restaurant. The little cakes, which are easy to make, start with a chocolate and cream mixture called ganache; that's thickened with butter, eggs, and cornstarch.
All three desserts offer an intensely chocolate experience. Pair them with ice cream, whipped cream, or whipped and gently sweetened crème fraiche. Lumiere's Leviton also recommends adding "something crunchy on the plate," such as candied nuts. McCarron serves his molten cakes with raspberries and a drizzle of vanilla custard sauce.
Indulgence, be mine.
