Molten chocolate cakes / Moelleux au chocolat

I don’t know about you guys, but every time I see a dessert with ‘chocolate’ in its title, I’m sold immediately. And if there is one chocolate dessert that trumps all the other ones, it’s molten chocolate cakes, or moelleux au chocolat as we call it in Belgium. A bit crunchy on the outside, still runny on the inside and deliciously warm: perfection! I used to work with the same recipe over and over again, one that was made by a Belgian chef, but even though he said the recipe couldn’t fail, I heard from some people that their lava cakes didn’t always work out too well so I modified the ingredients and now it really is foolproof!
In order to have to perfect lava cakes, you must pay attention to three things, or else it just might fail after all. Don’t add the flour before mixing the sugar and eggs, and you must let the dough rest in the fridge as described.

The ovenpart is also really crucial. Don’t leave the cake in the oven for too long! If you do, you will get some sort of brownie, which is  also delicious but not really what we’re aiming for here. Anyway, you need to really know your oven, but you should put your pastries in the oven for 8-10 minutes (In my oven it takes 8,5 minutes) at 210°C.

Making this recipe work really is a matter of timing so if you’ve never tried to make this in your oven before, simply make one testmoelleux and take it out of the oven at 7 minutes. Check both the sides and the center to see how runny it still is. Are the sides still runny? Then pop it back in the oven and check again a minute later. Once you’ve hit that 8 minute mark, check it every 30 seconds until you’ve got your perfect chocolate lava cake. Write down the exact timing and fill up the remaining ramekins.

Other than that, you should be fine!