Legend has it that Chocolate Lava Cake was the result of a disaster in the kitchen.  The dessert was meant to be individual chocolate cakes, but were taken out of the oven too early – the chef didn’t have time to put them back in the oven, so they were called ‘lava’ cake!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp all purpose flour, divided
6 oz chocolate, chopped (that’s half of a bag of chocolate chips… or 6 pieces of the baking bar)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
salt

powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Use a pastry brush, and brush the insides of ramekins with melted butter (not butter from recipe)
3. In a small bowl, whisk cocoa powder and 1 tbsp flour.  Dust the ramekins with this mixture – tapping out the extra.
4. In a medium saucepan, melt butter with chocolate over VERY LOW heat.  Let cool slightly.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, beat sugar and eggs and salt at medium speed until pale, thick yellow – about 3 minutes.
6. Using a silicone spatula, fold the melted chocolate into the eggs until no streaks remain.
7. Fold in 1/4 cup of flour
8. Spoon the batter into prepared ramekins and bake in the center of the oven for 16 minutes or until the tops are cracked but the centers are still slightly jiggly.
9. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
10. Run the tip of a small knife around each cake to loosen and invert a small plate over the top.
11. Carefully lift off ramekin.
12. Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm.