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Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) French dessert recipe. When I made it the other night one dinner guest declared it “Birthday Cake Good.” Which means…who needs birthday cake when you can eat this kind of Big YUM stuff!

This can be made in using several flavors of liqueur to go to along with the chocolate. Chocolate-raspberry, chocolate-orange, etc.

Serving Size: Serves 6. Can be doubled easily.

Ingredients: 

• 7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bits (get 70 percent cacao or higher)
• 1-3/4 cups of whipping cream
• 4 tsp of Truvia
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup of liqueur. Choose anything from a cream liqueur like Baileys or even raspberry (Chambord) or orange (Grand Marnier) etc.
• 1 tsp of organic vanilla
• 6 large egg yolks (use the whites for something else)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Take out a 9″ by 13″ ovenproof pan and lay a kitchen towel, folded, inside. This will help keep your ramekins stable.

Heat water in a double boiler until it begins to boil. Put the chocolate in the top and begin to melt it. Stir. When melted, take off heat but keep it from getting hard again.

While chocolate is melting: In a small sauce pan, add the cream, truvia, salt. Stir. Then bring that just to the boiling point. Don’t let it boil over. It’s hot enough when the bubbles form along the outside edge of the pan. Take it off heat and add your liqueur and vanilla. Stir.

In a medium bowl add the egg yolks and stir with a whisk to mix them well.

Slowly add the cream mixture to the melted chocolate. Stir continually with a whisk until it’s all incorporate and your mixture is smooth and creamy.

Then VERY slowly add the creamy chocolate mixture to the eggs. You have to do this VERY slowly. Just add a bit at a time and then mix it. If you put in too much too fast you’ll shock the egg yolks and they will “cook” leaving you with lumpy, scrambled eggs. So go slowly.

When it’s all mixed you’re ready to load your ramekins. Put your ramekins in the 9-by-13-inch pan on top of the towel. The towel stabilizes them. Turn on the hot water on your tap. Let it run to get it very hot.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the ramekins so they almost fill. (My ramekins are about a half cup size. I used to have pot de crème pots. You can use those too.)

Then put some hot water in a container that you can pour from. Slowly pour hot water around the ramekins so it soaks the towel and goes up about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil so the tops of the chocolate mixture stay moist while baking.

NOW CAREFULLY TRANSFER the pan to the oven. Put on middle rack and bake approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Make sure you are keeping the pan level so you don’t get burned by hot water sloshing around as you transfer it in and out of the oven. And keep the water out of the chocolate mixture or they won’t bake properly. They will be slightly jiggly when finished but not totally firm and not soupy (lift the aluminum foil lid to check them).

When baked, carefully remove the ramekins from the water and let cool at room temperature for 15 minutes. I use oven gloves and a tong or a spatula to lift them. You can then transfer them to the refrigerator to chill. If you are going to serve them much later, after cooling, cover them with plastic wrap to keep the tops moist.

Garnish with fruit if you like or serve plain.

Enjoy!

Cheers,