Sugar-Coated Sundays: Chocolate Lava Muffins

Hi everyone.  Meet Joanna (another Joanna), she works with me.  

{Joanna was worried about getting dirty since she knew I was whipping out the camera any minute.  Okay, and maybe when I got cocoa powder on my shirt she got a little extra nervous.  I get dirty when I bake, it proves I care.  So like a good hostess, I hooked her up with my Jack apron.}

For weeks now I've been bringing in goodies I've made for the blog for lunch and for treats to share with my co-workers.  After the parade of yummies I brought to work, Joanna asked me to help her make chocolate lava cakes.  I'd never made them before, but it can't be that hard, right?  I didn't want to have to go buy ramekins or any specialty pans just for this one recipe.  So a Googling I went and wouldn't you know it, AB was the answer - as always.

It's always polite to offer your guest a drink.

This one has

1 1/2 oz Bacardi Dragon berry

1 oz Citrus vodka

1 can (8.4 oz) Ocean Spray Sparkling Pomegranate Blueberry

Ice

1 giant wine glass

I'm calling it a Pom Blueberry Sparkler.

Getting back on track...This recipe is totally awesome and totally easy.  Don't waste the money getting Chocolate Lava Cake at a restaurant again.  These little babies are the perfect serving size for a party or you know, two or three for yourself.  It's about keeping the chef happy people.

Chocolate Lava Muffins

From Alton Brown  {my hero}

Ingredients:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

Butter, to coat muffin tin

Cocoa powder

Powdered sugar and vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions:

1. Place a medium glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Add chocolate chips and butter.  Stir occasionally until melted and smooth.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, and salt; set aside
4. Pour chocolate mixture into a large mixing bowl.  Sift flour mixture into chocolate and mix well on low speed.  Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each egg before adding the next.  Beat at high until batter is creamy and lightens in color, approximately 4 minutes.  Chill mixture.
5. Coat each cup of ONE muffin tin with butter.  Sift cocoa powder over tops of muffin tin cups, and shake out excess.  Spoon better into the prepared muffin tins using a 1/4 cup scoop.  
6. Bake 10 to 11 minutes.  Outsides should be cake-like and centers should be gooey.  Sift powdered sugar over inverted muffins and top with vanilla ice cream.  Serve warm.

These cakes are seriously amazing.  I found that they can be a little difficult to remove from the muffin tins - here's what I did.  

Run an offset spatula around the edge of each cake and gently pulled on the bottom to loosen things up.  Then place a cooling rack, upside down, on top of the muffin tin and inverted the whole thing.  Tap on the bottoms of each muffin tin cup and gently lift of muffin tin.  Tah dah!  Gorgeous little cakes of happiness and CHOCOLATE!

  

It's seriously worth the 25 minutes to have a little piece of heaven and a happy tummy.