Recipe: Thomas Keller's Chocolate Bouchons

Today was my friend's birthday, so I decided to try something new.

Thomas Keller is famous for his restaurant Bouchon, serving food that is strictly French Bistro fare. Bouchon also has a bakery thats famous for their famous Chocolate Bouchons, which looks like a dark chocolate brownie in the shape of a cork.

The result: Decadent and extremely rich. Coming right out of the oven, I think they came out a little too soft. Flavor wise, everything was spot on. The texture was like a crossbreed between a chocolate souffle and a brownie, in the sense that it had the fluffiness/moistness and strong dark chocolate flavor of a souffle, while having an outer crust similar to that of the crust of a brownie. This recipe is a keeper.

Thomas Keller's Chocolate Bouchons

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons (75 g) of unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 oz (90 g) bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Confectioners' sugar for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Set Silicone baking mold on a baking sheet. Grease each well of the mold with shortening or with cooking oil spray

Melting the chocolate in a double boiler is a pain in the ass. I did it, but its easier to just use the microwave. So put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave until melted, about 1 1/2 minutes, and stir immediately. You may alternatively, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, until melted. Let cool for 10 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt until combined.

In another bowl, whisk together sugar, whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until well combined. Add chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in the flour mixture little by little, slowly and gently, until combined.

Scoop about 2 tablespoons of batter into each well of the mold. Transfer mold, still on the baking sheet, to the oven and bake until tops of the chocolate corks are shiny and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, taking about 20-22 minutes.

Transfer the mold to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Carefully invert the mold to remove the chocolate corks and turn them right side up on rack. Let cool on the rack for at least 30 minutes before serving. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.