“He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans  and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.” ― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email titled “Guilty Pleasure”. The body of the message was a link to Kevin & Amanda‘s recipe for conventional “Lava” cookies, published a little over two years ago. Below is our gluten free adaptation. Remember that GF chocolate chip cookie dough performs best if it’s chilled/”let to rest” in the refrigerator for at least two hours and preferably overnight.

Molten Chocolate Chip Cookie Cakes – Makes 1 dozen individual cakes

Click Here For Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup – 1 stick unsalted butter 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons

(7.5 oz.)  firmly packed light brown sugar (Substitute dark brown or white depending on the flavor you prefer.)

2 tablespoons molasses (or enough to make your sugar weigh 8 oz.)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/8 cups

(7 oz.)GF flour mix (yours, ours, or Trader Joe’s)

1/3 cup (2 oz.) chestnut flour (Dowd & Rogers makes a nice product.)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon xantham gum

1/4 teaspoon salt

7 oz. chocolate chips (We suggest Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips for their flavor; their slightly larger size seems to make a minor difference with respect to the shape and cookie pattern of the cookies.)

4 oz. chocolate chips, melted. (This will need to be done just before baking; we use a double boiler.)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Melt the butter over  medium heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer.

2.  Add the sugar and molasses and blend until it’s creamy.

3.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

4.  Combine the dry ingredients; whisk to blend and add to the butter, sugar, egg mixture, mixing well and stirring down to incorporate the wetter dough at the bottom.

5.  Add the chocolate chips and mix on low to incorporate them evenly.

6.  Cover and CHILL for at least an hour; two hours or over night would be better.

7.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a standard size muffin tin with cooking spray. Spoon the melted chocolate chips into a plastic bag or pastry bag. If using a “baggie” you’ll need to snip a bottom corner to squeeze the melted chocolate onto the bottom layer of cookie dough.

8.  Scoop 24 equal portions of dough (1.25 – 1.5 oz. each), flattening each into disks that will loosely fit into the muffin tin. Place 12 in the bottom of the muffin tin. Gently squeeze a layer of chocolate over each portion of dough. Top with the remaining disks. All the (batter) should be 1/2 inch below the top edge of the pan to allow room to rise, but not spread.

9. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, run a knife around the edges to make for easy removal later. Cool completely before removing from the muffin tin, running a knife around the edge to help loosen.

Note: the cakes in the gallery below were made in a mini-cupcake pan, resulting in 24 tiny individual servings. We don’t want you to feel guilty about enjoying these special treats; remember Julia Child’s adage: “Everything in moderation… including moderation” , so a little “cake” with ice cream is just right!

Melting the butter

Weighing the dry ingredients

Adding the molasses

Creaming the butter, sugar, molasses, and egg

Batter ready for “chips”

Ready to “rest” in the ‘frige

Weighing equal portions of dough

Improvised “double boiler”

Support the empty baggie with a glass to easily fill with melted chocolate

Top layers

Caution: dough is too high here

Delicious, but the tops spread

More is more: vanilla ice cream AND chocolate sauce