Individual Hot Fudge Pudding Cakes.

Yum. Rich, but waay yum.



And when you think I'm joking when I say that they're rich, I am NOT. They're so filling.

Here's the recipe!

Individual Hot Fudge Pudding Cakes

2/3 cup cocoa

6 Tbsp butter cup into 6 pieces

2 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups weak coffee

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease eight 6-oz. ramekins and arrange on a large rimmed baking sheet.

2. Heat the 1/3 cup of the cocoa, butter, and chocolate together in a medium bowl in the microwave until smooth, stirring often, 1 to 3 minutes; set the mixture aside to cool slightly. In a small bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder together. In another small bowl, combine 1/3 cup of the sugar, remaining cocoa, and brown sugar, breaking up any large clumps with your fingers.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 2/3 cup sugar, milk, vanilla, egg yolk, and salt together until combined. Whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the flour mixture, until just combined. Divide the batter evenly among the ramekins. (about 1/4 cup in each ramekin.) and smooth the tops. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the cocoa mixture over the batter in each ramekin. Pour three tablespoons of the coffee over the cocoa in each ramekin.

4. Bake the cakes until puffed and bubbling, about 20 minutes. Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes before serving in the ramekins. (the cakes will fall slightly.)

Serve warm with vanilla or coffee ice cream.

Variation:

Large Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Grease an 8/inch square baking dish. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle to cocoa mixture evenly over the top to cover the entire surface of the cake. Pour the coffee gently over the cocoa mixture. Bake the cake until puffed and bubbling and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the baking dish, rotating the dish halfway through baking, about 45 minutes. Let the cake cool for at least 25 minutes before serving.

Love, Bethan

Truffle boxes tied up with ribbons.

This was my very first time making any truffle boxes, and overall, I was happy with how they turned out. I had a lot of fun doing them.

My college siblings will be home in THREE days and I can't wait!

I'm so excited about the French Macarons!

The past couple of sunsets and evenings.

The next baking adventure in November

So for several months I've been wanting to try making macarons. Or macaroons. It seems like people spell it both ways around here.

I was on the way home with friends from a birthday party, and daydreaming about baking stuff, when I came up with this idea:

French Macarons with a Coconut Buttercream Icing.

Now, I didn't want the coconut to overwhelm the icing, but I did want the flavor and that TINY bit of crunch, so I decided that I'd just do a tiny bit, blend it up so it's really small, and then add it.

Then I went on the great search to find Almond Flour. Which apparently isn't as easy to find as you think it would be. And since we have pretty much ZERO health food stores in our area, I went with the second option that America's Test Kitchen suggests: Raw almonds blended in a food processer (I wonder if you could mill them, too?). When I did finally find some of those that weren't at a ridiculous price, I was pretty thrilled, because I now had all of the ingredients I'd need.

I've been planning on making these for some time now, and I was hoping to be able to do it a couple of weekends ago when Christi was home for the weekend. But we had a mass of company, and with all of that, it wouldn't be fun to watch someone accidentally elbow my cookie sheet of macarons that were sitting and developing their two hour shell.

So I postponed it for Thanksgiving week, when the college siblings will be home.

Now I'll I have left to figure out is if I should let my egg whites age for 24 hours, 48 hours +, and if I should let them sit at room temperature (SCARY.) for whatever time period, or in the fridge. Uncovered, or covered? I need to go check out some of the bestie macaron blogs, so I can figure this out...

Sometime I want to try and make candy cane marshmallows, too. Wouldn't that be cute? I think it would be fun for Abby and I to try doing. :)

Bethan