Cookaholics Bulletin Board

It's not too often that I have a completely unmitigated baking disaster, but today I made an exception!

Here's the recipe I made:

http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/national/6273/Hot_chocolate_moves_beyond_the_mug.htm

What I ended up with, in the time allotted, was a sheet pan half-full of gummy semi-cake, and eight mason jars, also half-full of gummy semi-cake. They were almost entirely fluid when I finally removed them from the oven at 40 minutes.

Now, there are a number of quirks in the recipe, such as the oven temperature (but these ARE being baked in little jars), the Dutch cocoa (I used King Arthur Double Dutch, which says it's completely appropriate for Dutch cocoa recipes), and the olive oil (I know, not very appealing on the face of it, but I thought, "Who knows?").

If anyone looks at the recipe, I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts about whether it's the recipe (which, of course, is scaled down from a restaurant recipe) or me...

(BTW, yes, my oven is closely monitored for calibration.)

Josho

Beats me...we do have one of our board members "Phoenix" going to Phoenix soon...perhaps she can stop by the creators restaurant and try his finished product and ask the chef himself what the problem might be. He has a restaurant on Jeffereson.

Perhaps you could tweet him yourself??

The description reads Gooey Texture and Cakey Crust. Is this a variation of a Molten Lava cake?

Josh,

I'm not sure...

It's an unusual recipe, and definitely would be too sweet for my tastes. (I'm generally not a fan of high ratio cakes, and this one most definitely qualifies.)

The directions seem a little odd to me, but perhaps that's intentional.

I wouldn't add the sugar to the flour. I'd add everything else in Step 1 except the sugar. I'd then beat the sugar with the eggs and olive oil (not terribly unusual in cake recipes) in a standing mixer until light...give it some time. Then I'd slowly add the other liquid ingredients...slowly.

I'd then gradually add the dry ingredients until just completely combined.

My $.02.

Amy

I thought the same thing till I saw that the done test involved a clean toothpick. Kinda confusing...

I'd say he "intends" something like that, but the ingredients are quite different. (As is the calling for a clean toothpick). Molten lava cakes generally have very little flour, little to no liquid outside of what the butter and eggs contribute, use chocolate (which contains fat) instead of cocoa powder, and have far less sugar.

Amy

Josho,

Looking at those proportions, I would guess that the chef cut down the recipe from a "serves 30" version and had bad math. The 2 cups sugar in particular is a warning sign that there's been division errors.

I suggest adding a comment to the recipe, or using the linked feedback form. If nothing else, you want them to correct the recipe so that other people don't end up with a mess as well.

Per my Sweetie: "Hot chocolate mix has stabilizers in it. If your proportions are off, these additives will turn your cake into a gooey nasty mess. I've done that before."

Hi guys,
I'll try to get to the restaurant and ask the chef, if I can. We are going at an odd time for the fiesta bowl (around the new year), so no guarantees
Nancy