Chocolate and orange together in one mouthwatering muffin! Studded with dark chocolate chunks and piled high with a crunchy chocolate streusel topping, these muffins are, simply put, showstoppers. These orange-scented muffins are studded with dark chocolate chunks and topped with a sweet and salty cocoa streusel that bakes up delightfully crisp and crunchy, providing the […]
Chocolate and orange together in one mouthwatering muffin! Studded with dark chocolate chunks and piled high with a crunchy chocolate streusel topping, these muffins are, simply put, showstoppers.
These orange-scented muffins are studded with dark chocolate chunks and topped with a sweet and salty cocoa streusel that bakes up delightfully crisp and crunchy, providing the perfect textural contrast to the lusciously soft and moist interior.
Ever wonder about the evolution of a recipe?
In this case, I actually set out to make craquelin-topped muffins, where I placed a disc of craquelin on top of the unbaked muffin batter, hoping it’d rise and crackle like a cream puff.
My first test came out surprisingly well (I was shocked, actually), but subsequent batches were not quite so aesthetically pleasing. Ultimately I nixed the idea (brilliant as it may be) just because the results were so inconsistent.
But I loved the taste and texture of the crispy craquelin on top of the softer muffin base—the rich chocolate flavor and punch of salt was the perfect contrast to the tender orange muffin. I didn’t want to lose that, so I decided to replace the craquelin with a chocolate streusel topping instead to achieve the same textural contrast but hopefully with more consistent results.
I quickly realized that a chocolate streusel is nearly identical to the components of chocolate craquelin—flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, butter and salt—just with slightly more flour and crumbled instead of rolled into disks. So really, I didn’t have to sacrifice anything in the end!
I tested chocolate streusels with both melted and cold butter, and ultimately decided on the cold butter version as I found it to be crunchier and less prone to sinking than the melted version. It comes together somewhat like a pie dough, although you want to keep working it and rubbing the butter into the flour and sugar mixture until it comes together into a dry dough; you won’t have visible chunks of butter like with pie dough.
The crunchy muffin tops are arguably the best part of any muffin, doubly so for this version with its crunchy, salty chocolate streusel topping. That said, you can skip the streusel if you really want to; instead, sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar and add few chunks of chocolate to finish them off.
Classic shortbread gets a peppermint (bark) twist with a drizzle of white and dark chocolate and a flurry of crushed candy cane bits for a festive treat Santa is sure to love! As far as holiday cookies go, shortbread is a classic for a good reason: it’s ridiculously easy to prepare and delicious to boot. […]
Classic shortbread gets a peppermint (bark) twist with a drizzle of white and dark chocolate and a flurry of crushed candy cane bits for a festive treat Santa is sure to love!
As far as holiday cookies go, shortbread is a classic for a good reason: it’s ridiculously easy to prepare and delicious to boot. But shortbread combined with peppermint bark (another holiday classic)? That’s one marvelous holiday mashup.
I actually started this recipe last year, but didn’t have time to make it perfect and posted before Christmas. While my concept was solid (combining buttery shortbread cookies with peppermint bark is a stellar combination), the final execution left much to be desired.
My first attempt was downright messy (to say the least).
If you’ve made shortbread before you know that cutting the cookies while warm is absolutely necessary if you want clean cuts, as opposed to a crumbly mess if you try and cut into cooled cookies.
But I wanted to top the cookies with peppermint bark, which meant adding two layers of tempered chocolate to the tops of cooled cookies (cooled so the chocolate would actually set); additionally, the chocolate could not be added to already cut cookies otherwise it’d just flow into the cracks and glue the cut cookies together.
What I ended up with was sure delicious, but uglier than a Christmas sweater, with the shortbread crumbling to bits underneath the layer of snappy chocolate on top when I went to cut it. And I know, taste is the most important thing, obviously, but it wasn’t just about appearances: the crumbly mess-of-a-cookie was equally hard to handle and just not practical, no matter how good it tasted.
At this point it was two days before Christmas and really too late to post any new holiday cookie recipes anyway, let alone re-test this recipe to get it just right, so I jotted down a few notes and stuck a bookmark in my recipe notebook with the intention to revisit this recipe next year.
Fast forward to this December… and we’ve finally brought the execution up to bar with the concept.
In short(bread, lol), it’s all about the drizzle!
Drizzling the chocolate on top of the cookies, rather than spreading on a solid layer, allowed me to cut the cookies while they were still warm, then add the chocolate and candy cane once they’d cooled, solving the execution problem entirely.
Almond lovers, this recipe is for you! A perfectly chewy and gooey chocolate chip cookie infused with a double dose of almond flavor, with puddles of melted dark chocolate and a sprinkle of flake sea salt to finish it off right. As if a classic chocolate chip cookie wasn’t good enough, we take it up […]
Almond lovers, this recipe is for you! A perfectly chewy and gooey chocolate chip cookie infused with a double dose of almond flavor, with puddles of melted dark chocolate and a sprinkle of flake sea salt to finish it off right.
As if a classic chocolate chip cookie wasn’t good enough, we take it up a notch with almond paste and a healthy glug of amretto liqueur for a wonderfully unique flavor. These aren’t your average chocolate chip cookies, that’s for sure!
In this episode of boozy baking… we’ll infuse a classic chocolate chip cookie with almond paste and a generous glug of amaretto.
What’s not to love?
These are larger and thicker than my pistachio dark chocolate chunk cookies, though they might seem similar. I used a large cookie scoop for these babies, a whopping 60g of dough per cookie, which results in a palm-sized treat of epic proportions.
Chocolate and raspberry, together at last in one sweet and salty (and delightfully crumbly) mouthful. Jam crumb bars are one of my favorite desserts, and this choco-fied version is no exception: a layer of bright raspberry jam sandwiched between sweet and salty oatmeal shortbread, and chunks of bittersweet chocolate melted on top for good measure. […]
Chocolate and raspberry, together at last in one sweet and salty (and delightfully crumbly) mouthful.
Jam crumb bars are one of my favorite desserts, and this choco-fied version is no exception: a layer of bright raspberry jam sandwiched between sweet and salty oatmeal shortbread, and chunks of bittersweet chocolate melted on top for good measure.
Oat and jam crumb bars are, well, kinda my jam. I love being able to use up the random half-filled jars of jam floating around the fridge (because, surprisingly, for as much jam as I make we really don’t eat that much of it). Jam bars are like thumbprint cookies with half the effort.
A layer of crumbly oat shortbread + fruity jam + even more crumbles = one seriously tasty treat. Even more so when you add a double dose of chocolate to the mix. This is basically a choco-fied version of my original jam bars (one of the bonus recipes that comes with my Jam e-book bundle, and while I haven’t shared it in full on the blog, it’s one of my all-time favorites.)
You’d think chocolate crumb bars would be a thing, but usually it’s just regular crumb with a layer of chocolate or chocolate chips or something, which is not nearly enough chocolate for me.
So I added cocoa to the crumb base AND chopped up pieces of dark chocolate on top, making for the extra-chocolatey crumb bar of your dreams.
This is one of those unassuming recipes that doesn’t look that impressive (it’s no s’mores tart topped with berries and edible gold leaf), but it’s just as satisfying, maybe even moreso for the pure simplicity and ease of preparation.
In other words, the effort-to-impact ratio is far higher than a high-effort/high-impact dessert like that tart, which in many ways makes it the superior recipe, wouldn’t you say?
With crispy edges and soft, chewy centers, and studded with chunks of crunchy pistachios, pools of molten chocolate, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top, these pistachio and chocolate chunk cookies are a step above the rest. Pistachio flour and pistachio extract amp up the pistachio flavor even more and give the cookies […]
With crispy edges and soft, chewy centers, and studded with chunks of crunchy pistachios, pools of molten chocolate, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top, these pistachio and chocolate chunk cookies are a step above the rest.
Pistachio flour and pistachio extract amp up the pistachio flavor even more and give the cookies a slightly green hue. They’re not your grandma’s chocolate chip cookies, that’s for sure, but I have a feeling grandma would be totally on board with fancied-up chocolate chip cookies like these.
I still had some pistachio flour left from my most recent pistachio experiments (to say I went through a bit of a pistachio phase would be an understatement, and honestly? Can you really call if a phase if it never really ended?) I figured I’d use it to step up my chocolate chip cookie game, upgrading your standard CCC into something truly grand.
Molten chocolate lava cake is an iconic treat with a liquid “lava” center: the ideal dessert recipe for chocolate lovers!
Here’s an iconic dessert that’s the pure definition of decadence: Molten Chocolate Lava Cake! It gets its name from its liquid “lava” center, which flows like a volcano when you dig into it with a fork. If you’re a chocolate lover who loves licking the batter off spatulas (guilty!), you’ll be head over heels for this one. Turns out, it’s not as tricky as you think: but there are a few things to know to fail-proof this classic chocolate dessert.
History of lava cake
Lava cake, chocolate lava cake or molten lava cake is a small chocolate cake baked in a ramekin that’s intentionally under-baked so that the center is still liquid. There are several chefs who claim to have invented the idea.
Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten alleges he created it in 1987 after he pulled a chocolate cake out of the oven too soon and found the gooey center had great flavor. Either way, he’s who brought the cake to popularity in the US and soon around the world.
Tricks to molten chocolate lava cake
Lava cake is easy to make, but tough to perfect. (Trust us, we’ve made this recipe too many times to count as we honed it to perfection!) Here are three things to know about making the best lava cake:
You’ll need 6-ounce ramekins. This classic lava cake requires a special baking dish. Make sure to get these, because the bake time depends on it. (Need ramekins? Here’s a link to our 6-ounce ramekins.)
The bake time is extremely sensitive. You’ve got to pull the cakes when they’re just baked on the outside but still molten on the inside. It takes a little practice based on your oven, so don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time.
Follow the unmolding instructions exactly. Once you take the cakes out of the oven, they still bake in the ramekins. So you’ll need to let them sit an exact amount of minutes to get the outside and top to firm up.
Other than that, it’s big fun! The batter is quick and easy to whip up, and it’s a theatrical dessert that’s perfect for chocolate lovers. Unmold the cakes, dig in, and watch that lava flow!
Why these chocolate lava cakes are the best
In testing this recipe, we surveyed an incredible amount of lava cake recipes. The classic recipe uses a large quantity of chocolate and butter. But we tweaked and honed this recipe to perfection to taste even better with less richness. Here’s what makes this lava cake recipe great:
It tastes like chocolate cake batter. Most classic recipes taste like melted chocolate, which is good but not great. These molten lava cakes taste like the chocolate cake batter you lick off a spoon.
It’s just as decadent, with half the butter and chocolate as a standard recipe. The standard recipe is too rich for us. Plus, we hate using an entire 1 ½ chocolate bars for the recipe (we’d rather eat the bar). This recipe uses only ½ chocolate bar for 4 servings.
Ingredients in molten lava cake
Most molten lava cake recipes call for a massive amount of butter and chocolate. This recipe uses half the standard, so it’s more like a chocolate cake a big pile of chocolate. Here’s what you’ll need:
Bittersweet chocolate (60%) bar or baking chocolate bar: The most important thing to note: do not use chocolate chips! They are formulated differently and make for a very thick batter. You can also use a semi-sweet chocolate bar if you prefer. The amount needed in this recipe is 2 ounces or half a 4-ounce bar.
Unsalted butter
Eggs
Granulated sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Kosher salt
Milk
Tips for unmolding them!
The nerve-wracking part of a lava cake: unmolding it! You’ll need to get it to release from the ramekin without sticking, and it needs to be just baked on the outside but liquid on the inside. Here are some tips:
Butter the ramekin, and add a circle of parchment paper at the bottom. This ensures the cake will easily slide out and won’t stick to the bottom. (We had issues with this in our recipe testing.)
After baking, wait 2 minutes. This is important: the cooking process still continues here!
Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake. This releases the cake from the sides.
Invert one cake onto a plate (with a hot pad), wait 10 seconds, then pull it back. The cake should release onto the plate. Remove the parchment circle: the top of the cake will be either just cooked over or have a small circle of lava visible.
Troubleshooting: too much lava vs not enough lava
What to do if you have too much lava or not enough lava? Here are our tips:
If the first cake collapses with too much lava,wait another minute or two before unmolding the next cakes. The cakes will continue cooking in the hot ramekins. But do not leave the cakes in the ramekins too long: they will cook through and lose the lava.
If the cake doesn’t have enough lava, next time bake the cakes for 1 minute less time. It’s tricky to get perfect because all ovens vary! Don’t worry: you’ll get it next time.
Lava cakes for two
Can you make lava cakes for two? You bet! This recipe is easy to make as a half recipe. Simply divide all the quantities below in half: we’ve formulated it to work neatly as a half recipe. It’s the perfect dessert to end a meal for two, like Valentine’s Day or a romantic dinner!
More chocolate desserts
Are you a chocoholic like we are? Here are a few more chocolate desserts we love:
Fold a piece of parchment paper in half, then half again to get four layers. Trace the bottom of a ramekin on the parchment and cut out 4 circles. Use butter to grease the bottom and sides of ramekins. Place the parchment circles into the bottom of the ramekins and grease the parchment paper as well.
Slice the butter into pieces and break the chocolate into small pieces. Place them in a glass measuring cup or glass bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and then microwave another 20 to 40 seconds until completely melted when stirred. Allow to cool while you make the rest of the batter.
In a larger bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until fully combined and frothy. Then whisk in the dry ingredients and the milk. Whisk until smooth, then slowly add butter and chocolate mixture and whisk until just incorporated and smooth.
Pour the batter evenly into the four ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake them for 11 minutes (or 10 minutes if baking at altitude). The cake should be risen, cracked across the top and just a little bit jiggly when the center is lightly tapped with your finger. (11 minutes is perfect in our oven.)
Remove from the oven and rest the cakes for 2 minutes (it’s important to be precise here; the cakes still cook while in the ramekins). Carefully run a sharp paring knife around the outsides of the cake to let it loose from the ramekin. Using a hot pad, invert one lava cake onto a plate (careful, the ramekins are hot!). Wait 10 seconds before carefully removing the ramekin to unmold the cake, then remove the parchment circle from the top. The top of the cake will be either just cooked over or have a small circle of lava visible. If the cake collapses with too much lava, wait another minute before unmolding the other cakes, since they will continue cooking in the hot ramekin. (But do not leave the cakes in the ramekins too long: they will cook through and lose the lava!) If the cake doesn’t have enough lava, next time you make the recipe reduce the bake time by 1 minute.
Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, using a spoon to open the cake and allow the lava to flow out.
Notes
*Chocolate chips do not work well, since they are formulated to not melt (they result in an ultra thick batter). Resist the urge to substitute them! Most chocolate bars come in 4-ounce bars, so 2 ounces is a half bar. You can substitute semi-sweet chocolate if desired.
**This recipe is easy to make as a half recipe: it’s a great dessert for a dinner for two!
Hot chocolate is a wonderful way to treat yourself on a cold, wintery day. I’ll make it in the morning, but I tend to opt for coffee earlier in the day and make my hot chocolate a mid-day or evening treat instead. Powdered hot chocolate mix is the most common way to make …
Hot chocolate is a wonderful way to treat yourself on a cold, wintery day. I’ll make it in the morning, but I tend to opt for coffee earlier in the day and make my hot chocolate a mid-day or evening treat instead. Powdered hot chocolate mix is the most common way to make hot chocolate and you can make it yourself with cocoa powder and sugar or simply buy your favorite brand. Trader Joe’s Hot Chocolate Sticks are another way to make yourself a hot chocolate and I picked up some this holiday season to give them a try.
The Trader Joe’s Hot Chocolate Sticks are individually wrapped sticks of dark chocolate, each of which is about 3 inches long. Eight come in the box and each is almost an ounce. You simply unwrap and stir into a mug of hot coffee or milk, letting the chocolate melt. It’s the same idea as hot chocolate on a stick, but without the stick! The chocolate has a wonderfully fruity dark chocolate flavor and I like it even better with coffee than I do with milk alone. The downside of these sticks is that your fingers might get a bit messy while melting them, but that’s a minor inconvenience – especially if you, like me, would like to stir in some chocolate and simply eat the last bit!
I like that these are easy to share, single serve and individually wrapped. They make a good little stocking stuffer gift, alongside a mug and a spoon, too. And you can always eat them as mini candy bars if you’re in need of a chocolate fix and don’t have a mug of hot coffee or milk handy!
A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we’re gue…
A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. Inspired by the column, the Big Little Recipes cookbook is available now. Like, right now.
Don’t save room for dessert. If the glazed ham is sweet enough, if the latkes are crisp enough, if the spinach is creamy enough, go back for seconds. Go back for thirds. Go back for fourths. You deserve it.
This article is a part of Chocolate Week—seven days of recipes and stories, all chocolate—presented by our friends at Guittard. A fifth-generation family business, Guittard has been crafting an array of chocolate offerings (like top-quality baking chip…
This article is a part of Chocolate Week—seven days of recipes and stories, all chocolate—presented by our friends at Guittard. A fifth-generation family business, Guittard has been crafting an array of chocolate offerings (like top-quality baking chips, cocoa powder, and baking bars) in San Francisco since 1868.
Our best chocolate recipes hardly need an introduction. There’s layer cakes, chocolate cookies, chocolate frostings, mousses and puddings, pies and tarts, and everything in between. But I know you really just want to get to the recipes, so let’s do just that.
Flourless chocolate cake is a dessert that everyone should learn how to make. It’s a cake that doesn’t require very many ingredients, so you will probably always have what you need to bake one already on hand. And since it is simple, it’s not difficult to put your own twist on them. This …
Flourless chocolate cake is a dessert that everyone should learn how to make. It’s a cake that doesn’t require very many ingredients, so you will probably always have what you need to bake one already on hand. And since it is simple, it’s not difficult to put your own twist on them. This Cranberry Flourless Chocolate Cake is perfect for the holidays. It adds sweet-tart cranberries to a melt-in-your-mouth flourless chocolate cake for a dessert that is downright addictive.
The cake batter for this Cranberry Flourless Chocolate Cake comes together easily, and in just a few minutes. It is made with dark chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs and cocoa powder. It has a rich, satisfying chocolate flavor because chocolate is the bulk of the cake. This also means that you’ll really be able to taste the depth of flavor from the chocolate that you use, so this is a great recipe to splurge with high quality chocolate in the the batter. The cake is also gluten free, which means that it will fit a variety of dietary needs, too.
Whole cranberries are folded in to the batter just before the cake goes into the oven. The cranberries have a bright, tart flavor that adds a wonderful contrast to all that chocolate. There are just enough cranberries that you should get one in every bite or two, giving the cake a great balance.
I really prefer using fresh cranberries in this cake over frozen ones. They have a slightly better texture because they don’t release too much extra liquid into the cake. That said, you can use frozen cranberries. If you do, mix them in quickly so they don’t thaw before the cake gets into the oven. You will also need to extend the baking time by 2-3 minutes.
The cake should be cooled completely before serving, but will keep for 2-3 days after baking when stored in an airtight container. Serve it at room temperature or slightly warmed, alongside a generous scoop of whipped cream.
Cranberry Flourless Chocolate Cake
4-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (approx. 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup whole, fresh cranberries
Preheat oven to 375F. Line an 8-inch cake pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper and lightly grease.
In a small, microwave-safe bowl, melt together chocolate and butter, stirring with a fork until very smooth.
Pour warm chocolate mixture into a medium mixing bowl with sugar. Whisk to combine. Beat in eggs one at a time, waiting until each has been fully incorporated to add the next, then mix in vanilla extract. Sift cocoa powder into the bowl and whisk until well-combined. Fold in cranberries until evenly distributed.
Pour into prepared cake pan.
Bake for 25-27 minutes, until cake is set and cranberries are bubbling slightly.
Allow cake to cool completely in the pan for 5 minutes, then lift the cake out of the pan using the parchment paper or aluminum flour. Slide cake onto a serving platter using a large spatula.
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