Chocolate Bouchons

I first learned of chocolate bouchons from my beloved Thomas Keller cookbook of the same name. Traditionally baked in cork-sized molds (bouchon is French for cork), these decadent morsels are meant to be tiny, two-bite treats.  For my first batch of bouchons I decided to buck tradition and make mine a bit bigger, one, because I can certainly eat more than a corks worth of chocolate cake and, two, because I don't own a bouchon tin. Well, I'm very happy with my results and, as far as I'm concerned, the more bouchon the better.  These cakes are incredibly rich, luscious and unabashedly chocolaty.  They melt in your mouth with their densely moist cake and splattering of chocolate chunks. Make these for anyone who adores dark chocolate and you'll have a friend for life.  Make them for dessert at your next dinner party and your guests will swoon. Believe me, you will be glad you made these cakes a bit larger than a cork.  

Dark Chocolate Bouchons

adapted from the recipe in Bouchon by Thomas Keller

makes 15 cakes 

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

2 tsp fine fleur de sel or kosher salt

1 tsp espresso powder

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 sticks unsalted butter, melted

6 oz dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 12 count muffin tin plus half of a 6 count muffin tin. Set tins aside.

Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Once butter is melted, remove pot from stove to cool slightly.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, sift together the flower, cocoa, salt and espresso powder.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl using a hand mixer) beat the sugar and eggs at medium speed for 5 minutes or until thickened and light in color.  Add the vanilla extract and turn the speed to low.  Continuing on low speed, add in half of the dry mixture followed by half of the melted butter.  Add the rest of the dry mixture and finish by adding the remaining butter.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula, mix in the chopped chocolate.  Make sure batter is thoroughly mixed.

Using an ice-cream scoop, portion a scoop of the batter into each of the 15 prepared cups.  Bake for 23-25 minutes or until the tops are a bit cracked and no longer wet to the touch.  Allow cakes to sit in the tins for a few minutes and once they are cool enough to handle, transfer the cakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.  If necessary, use a small offset spatula to carefully coax the cakes out of the tins.  

If using, pour powdered sugar into a fine mesh sieve and gently shake over the cooling cakes.  

note: this recipe can easily be doubled

These cakes have a lot of butter but don't worry, they are so worth it.

Chopped dark chocolate.  It doesn't matter if you start with chocolate bars, chips or  callets.  I prefer chocolate with 60-75% cocoa solids for ultimate richness.    

Mix the chopped chocolate into the surprisingly thick and fudgy batter.

Bake until just done and perfectly moist in the middle. 

You've just got to try them.  Chocolate heaven.