Chocolate Bouchons
For years the French have purchased pastries to take home and serve with coffee or as dessert, and now you can too. But, what about a Recipe of the Month? Here for you is an easy and delicious little treat you can serve after dinner with coffee. The recipe comes from Thomas Keller’s cookbook called BOUCHON. Bouchon is French for champagne cork. Next to Thomas’ restaurant Bouchon in Yountville is Bouchon Bakery where you’ll find these little chocolate goodies that kind of look like champagne corks. (The important thing is to have little round silicone molds. I got mine at Sur La Table.)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. coarse salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbs. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 6 oz, semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
- confectioners’ sugar
Directions
To get ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and set out the molds. Sieve the flour, cocoa, and salt together into a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar on medium speed until they are thick and lemonly looking. Add the vanilla. With the mixer on low, alternately add one-third of the dry ingredients and one-third of the melted butter. Add the chocolate pieces and stop the mixer. Spoon the chocolate mixture into the molds filling them almost to the top. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until the tops look shiny and set. Transfer the molds to a cooling rack. Let them cool 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool. Just before serving turn them over and dust with a light sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar.
Makes 36.