Chocolate Cravings!

With Valentine’s Day over, but that chocolate craving still lingering, I have a recipe that I learned in a cooking class while studying abroad in France that will satisfy any longing for chocolate. It is a chocolate cake, “moelleux au chocolat,” that is so delicious you won’t have to go out to satisfy your chocolate fix anymore!

A “moelleux au chocolat” is a soft, decadent, fudgy French cake. With this recipe, it tastes different depending on its temperature. Hot, it tastes like a gooey pudding cake. Cold, it tastes like a dense fudge cake. In both cases, it is very chocolatey. I am usually the type of person who likes to eat baked goods right out of the oven—gooey brownies, warm muffins, soft cookies. However for this cake, I recommend refrigerating it and eating it cold. I actually suggest trying it both ways. Taste it when it comes right out of the oven, but then make sure there are leftovers so that you can put the rest in the fridge to try cold. It is crazy how different it tastes just due to a change in temperature. But I’ll leave it to you to decide which you prefer. The best part about this recipe—besides that it tastes so good—is that it is so simple to make! Just mix a few ingredients together, throw it in the oven, and it’s ready to eat…unless of course, you refrigerate it. But even still, the preparation takes less than ten minutes, which is great when you are in the middle of midterms and need some chocolate to get by! Last thing, when you test the cake, sticking a toothpick in the center to see if it is cooked, note that when the cake is hot, it is like a pudding cake. So when you put the toothpick in, you will still see gooey chocolate residue even if it is fully baked. So put it in the oven for the suggested time, and just make sure that it is not soupy when it comes out. Let it settle for a few minutes, and then…bon appétit!

Molleaux au Chocolat

Ingredients:
200 grams of dark chocolate
1 3/4 sticks of butter
5 eggs
1 full tablespoon of flour
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch round pan.
Melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Mix together.
Add the eggs one by one, mixing by hand after each addition.
Add flour and sugar. Mix well and pour into the pan.
Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool before serving.