I apologize that it has been so long. I got busy with life. However, now it is finals week and I am procrastinating so I thought I should definitely share these. I made them for myself for my birthday last week, and they were delicious. Time consuming, but unbelievably worth it and amazing. Notice I said time consuming, not difficult. Clearly the recipe comes from the Queen herself, Martha Stewart. Okay, not the queen, but she may as well be. The recipe that I used can be found here.
You'll need:
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (4 ounces) heavy cream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
So you'll start with the ganache, or the filling. Put four ounces of the chocolate in a small, heatproof bowl. In a small plan over medium heat, you'll heat the cream until it begins to boil. Once it is boiling remove from heat and pour it over the chocolate, while hot. Let it stand for a minute or two, then mix it until smooth. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until it is SET. About an hour, probably longer. Use a 1-inch scoop to make balls of the set ganache, place on a parchment lined tray - not touching. Two important tid bits: MAKE SURE THE GANACHE IS SET. and normally I'm not one for parchment lining anything, too lazy, but we didnt this time and regretted it very quickly. Freeze these for at least an hour, but up to three days.
Once they've been in their an hour, the rest is easy and quick. Preheat the oven to 450, line a muffin/cupcake tin with your liners. Or what we definitely wished we had thought of earlier was using those free standing cupcake liners that you can put on a cookie sheet. We ended up crushing a few of ours taking them out of the tray at the end, so if you have some of the free standing ones around you should try those.
You're going to make the batter, which is surprisingly simple. In a medium (heat proof) boil set over a pan of simmering water, heat the remaining chocolate (eight ounces) with the butter until its melted. While thats melting, but still being occasionally stirred, mix together your eggs, the yolks, and sugar until its pale and thick (five minutes?). Quickly add this to the melted chocolate that has been removed from heat, and fold in until ALMOST completely incorporated. Sift flour and salt over mixture, lightly fold it in.
Divide this batter amound the liners, but filling only half way. Then add a ganache ball to each, and then fill with the rest of the batter. you can fill them basically to the top. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool lightly, cakes will fall, we aren't making souffles. Serve them warm. (I ended up with one left, and microwaved it for breakfast the next day [hey it was my birthday, don't judge] and it was still delicious.) I garnished mine with ice cream. It soothes the immense chocolate flavor. Enjoy!
