You'd think by now I would've run out of chocolaty desserts to make. Fortunately, that's pretty much impossible.
My favorite part about flourless chocolate cakes is that they're essentially straight up baked chocolate: dense, rich, and pure. No flour or baking soda to mask the taste. No complicated procedures. They're for the ultimate chocolate lover, so I knew Radhika had to get a taste of some! And the espresso caramel sauce was just a way to deviate from the prosaic buttercream frosting that usually tends to overpower, rather than compliment, the flavors of cake.
Although its safe to say most baked goods taste best scalding hot and straight from the oven, I would recommend eating these cakes after they've been refrigerated for a couple hours. It only adds to the density and intense chocolate flavor, and the caramel becomes nice and gooey too.
Couple of notes :
- If you want your cakes light and fluffy - I suggest separating your eggs and beating the egg whites to stiff peaks before folding them into the mixture. If you prefer your cakes dense, just mix the entire egg right in there and don't worry about a thing.
- If you want your cakes more pudding-like, bake them in a hot water bath. They take on the texture of cheesecake and the texture is smooth and creamy.
- If you want your cakes with a thin crust - set your oven to broil for 2-3 minutes after the designated baking time is up.
Ingredients
For the mini flourless chocolate cakes
2/3 cup chocolate chips/chopped baking chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's special dark)
1 stick butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs separated (or not - read notes for options)
For the caramel espresso sauce
5 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp instant espresso powder
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Cakes
- Preheat oven to 375 F and line muffin pan with muffin cups.
- Beat egg whites until they can hold stiff peaks
- Melt butter in a small pot over medium flame and add chocolate chips. Mix until the chocolate is fully incorporated with the butter.
- Add brown sugar and keep cooking for 2-3 more minutes, stirring continuously so the chocolate doesn't burn.
- Stir in the cocoa powder and remove pot from flame.
- Once chocolate mixture has cooled (5-7 minutes), mix in the egg yolks.
- Fold chocolate mixture into the egg whites until fully encorporated
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- For a crust, set oven to broil and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes
- Melt butter and sugar in sauce pan over medium heat. Cook for 4-5 minutes until mixture begins to thicken.
- Heat heavy cream in microwave until it's warm to the touch.
- Stir heavy cream into caramel and add espresso powder.
- Whisk vigorously on low heat to incorporate the heavy cream. (2-3 minutes, should take on amber color)
- Take caramel off heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- Caramel will thicken as it cools, but you can thin it out again by reheating it for a minute or two. Or you can eat it nice and gooey like I like it :)