French recipe: mi-cuit au chocolat

American Amanda Bankert started out making artisanal donuts for coffee shops in Paris. Today her popular Boneshaker bakery makes 100% plant-based pastries fresh every morning.

Here she introduces her book Voilà Vegan and provides a delicious dessert recipe to try at home.

Mi-cuit au chocolat

Chocolate lava cake (mi-cuit, or “half-baked,” in French) is a classic on dessert menus worldwide, and for good reason. Is there anything more serotonin-inducing than sliding your spoon through a thin layer of chocolate cake to reveal a pool of molten chocolate? I doubt it. 

I’ve made these in every restaurant I’ve worked in. At home, make like a pastry chef and prep these cakes in advance: pipe the batter into ramekins and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. 

Bake the cakes à la minute, and when you remove them from the oven, add flaked salt and a cheeky scoop of ice cream.

Ingredients 

Makes 4

• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder

• 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed

• 100g chopped dark chocolate

• 100g vegan butter

• 150g sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 50g all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• half teaspoon fine sea salt

Read also: Recipe: try these delicious pistachio-chocolate swirls

Method

1. If baking immediately, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

2. Grease four 10cm ramekins and dust the centre of each with about 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder. Spin the ramekin in your palm, turning it so the cocoa powder coats the entire surface. Tap out the excess and set the ramekins aside.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the ground flaxseed with 110ml of water. Set aside to thicken for about 10 minutes. This is your flax egg.

4. Make a bain-marie by placing a large heatproof bowl over a small pot of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water (the chocolate will burn). Add the chocolate and butter and heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has just melted. Alternatively, you can microwave it in 30-second increments until melted. Let cool slightly.

5. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, add the chocolate mixture, flax egg, sugar, and vanilla and mix on low speed until smooth. Finally, fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

6. Transfer the batter to a piping bag and fill each ramekin three-quarters full. At this stage, you can either place the fondants in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them (up to a day in advance), or bake them for 10 to 12 minutes. The cakes should be puffed up on the sides but still wobble (the tiniest bit) in the centre when you take them out of the oven.

This recipe features in Voilà Vegan 85 decadent, secretly plant-based desserts from an American pâtisserie in Paris: A baking book by Amanda Bankert. Published by Avery, RRP $35.00.