chocolate blobs

I packed and packed, and I finally got through the Thursday superbuzzy orders! Of course, I still have many, many more to go, but hey, I’m making progress.
Anyway, I read about these chocolate bouchons on the Orangette food blog a while back. She first had them at the Pearl Bakery, which is right here in my fair city, and the recipe is in David Lebovitz’s The Great Book of Chocolate, which I have, so it’s like I was destined to make them (David Lebovitz also has a food blog that I regularly read). The book is great, because Mr. Lebovitz (or can I call him David, since, you know, I read his blog?) discusses the origin and history of chocolate, provides interesting anecdotes about chocolate, introduces us to a number of chocolatiers, and arms us with a slew of recipes. The only beef I have with the book is it’s tall and narrow, so it’s hard to prop open to read the recipes.

These things are pretty darn yummy. The first bite I took, though, it seemed kind of dry and crumbly and kind of made me choke, but then the flavor of the chocolate kind of slowly explodes and saturates your whole mouth, and then it’s just crazy delicious. You definitely need a good cup of coffee, or a glass of milk if you’re one of those weirdos who doesn’t drink coffee (no offense. Some of my best friends are weirdos who don’t drink coffee).
Read on for the recipe …

Bouchons – from The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz
Makes 12
Ingredients:
3.5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch-process, but the recipe says you can use either natural or Dutch-process)
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup miniature chocolate chips (I didn’t have mini ones, and the regular ones worked fine. Often regular ones sink to the bottom, but that didn’t happen this time)
Preheat the oven to 375F. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin.
If you have a double boiler, melt the bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate in it. If you don’t have one, place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and melt the chocolate in the bowl.
Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use a stand mixer if you have one. If you don’t, use an electric mixer. If you don’t have an electric hand mixer, then you must have huge biceps). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Mix in the melted chocolate.
Fill the muffin tin with the batter. I used an ice cream scoop, and it was just the ticket. Bake for about 18 minutes or until they are still pretty soft in the centers if you prod it very gently with your finger. Don’t overbake or they will be dry and nasty (well, not NASTY, but you know).
Remove from oven and cool in tin for 10 minutes before removing bouchons from the pan.