Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and if you want to give your honey a special treat, how about a restaurant-worthy dessert right out of your own kitchen? And it’s easier than you think. You’ll love these elegant and luxurious desserts so much, you might just make them for yourself!

Mini Molten Lava Cakes

This recipe is a simple way to create a molten lava cake at home, with no special equipment, and just a few basic ingredients. And if you ever need a gluten free dessert, this one contains zero flour. To make it even easier, you can make put the finished batter in your muffin tin and refrigerate it up to a day in advance.

Preheat your oven to 400°F and prepare your muffin tin by coating 9 cups with a thin layer of butter, then sugaring them. In a microwave safe bowl, melt in your microwave on high for a minute or so:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz.)

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Once melted and stirred smooth, add in and stir until smooth:

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

In a mixer bowl, beat on medium speed until the mixture has soft peaks:

4 large egg whites (1/2 cup of whites)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Increase mixer speed to high, and slowly add:

2 tablespoons sugar

Once peaks are stiff, but not dry, use a rubber spatula and fold in a good large spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten in, then fold in the rest, until no white streaks remain. Be gentle! Fill your muffin cups about ¾ full and bake for about 7 to 8 minutes, or until you see cracks form on the top of your cake. Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 3 minutes, and you’ll notice the sides begin to pull away from the sides of each cup. Gently jiggle the pan upward, to see if the cakes are loose. Any that aren’t should be gently loosened with a thin knife around the edges. Put a rack or plate on top of the cakes and turn over to unmold. You can gently use a wide spatula to plate each cake, and top with Raspberry Coulis if you wish. Eat right away, as cake will lose its gooey center as it sits. Also, if you want an extra gooey center, pull it more quickly. If you want it more firm, pull it later. You’ll notice I said the word ‘gently’ often. That’s because the cake gets its structure from egg whites, which are fragile.

Raspberry Coulis

Coulis (cool-lee) is a just a fancy word for a fruit sauce you don’t cook, which is what this is. So you can impress your dinner guests when you tell them what is for dessert! A bonus with this sauce is that it is bright red, so the lava cake looks like a volcano when you pour this sauce on top! The tartness of the sauce is a perfect accompaniment to the richness of the chocolate.

2 cups of fresh or frozen (thawed) berries

Sugar to taste (start with 2 tablespoons)

A splash of lemon juice (like a teaspoon or so, more if needed)

Puree your berries in a blender and add in sugar and lemon juice. Taste. Depending on the sweetness/tartness of your berries, add sugar and/or lemon juice. Don’t add too much lemon, or that flavor will be too pronounced. To get a nice, smooth sauce, strain out the seeds by pushing the mixture through a sieve. It takes a little time, but it’s worth the effort.

 

 

  

Mini Cheesecakes

Yields about 18 mini portions

 Few desserts are as loved as cheesecake, but making one is a bit of a bother. It’s not so much the mixing, but the actual baking. A spring-form pan, a water bath method to help prevent cracking, an hour of slow cooking plus an additional hour of cool down in the closed oven, chilling overnight, yada yada yada.. well, the end results are great, but few busy people are going to take the time for all that.

But…what if you could have the exact same creamy cheesecake, baked in only 20 minutes, and ready to eat just a couple of hours after that? And a recipe that allowed you to create a wide variety of delicious combinations, all in convenient single-serving sized portions? That’s what we have here, with Mini Cheesecakes, baked in regular muffin tins, with a simple graham cracker crust. Variation ideas are at the end of the recipe. Enjoy!

To make the crusts, preheat your oven to 350°F and line your muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners. Stir together in a small bowl:

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs or other cookie crumbs of your choice (about 7 full graham crackers or 18 chocolate sandwich cookies, cream removed)

4 teaspoons of sugar

3 tablespoons melted butter.

Once combined, put a tablespoon of it into each muffin cup liner and press down to make flat. (You can use your fingers, a tart tamper, or the bottom of a small glass.) Bake for about 7 minutes until nicely set, then place aside to cool. Lower oven to 275 degrees.

To make the cheesecake filling, in a mixing bowl, using your whisk attachment, beat together until smooth:

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons corn starch

Add one at a time, beating well after each addition:

2 large eggs

Scrape down the sides and add:

1 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sour cream

Fill each cupcake liner as full as possible. Bake for 20 minutes at 275 degrees, or until sides are set well, but the center is still a bit woobly. Leave the cheesecakes in the pan to cool on a rack until room temperature. Let them chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours at least. Serve with your choice of sauces and toppings (recipes and variations follow.)

Raspberry Delight Cheesecake

Make with your choice of cracker crust and using the Raspberry Coulis recipe (found above) and a small squirt bottle, place a large drop of it in the center of each cheesecake. Use a bamboo skewer to drag through the dot, forming a heart. You can make one large one, or several smaller ones. Bake the same and serve with more coulis on the side and even a fresh raspberry on top.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Cook 2 cups of blueberries in a small saucepan, with 2 tablespoons of sugar and juice from half a lemon.  Let it simmer for 8 minutes. Once cool, use an immersion blender to puree it. Drizzle sauce onto top of unbaked cheesecake batter in each muffin cup, swirling with a skewer for whatever effect you desire. Bake the same, and serve with sauce on the side.

Cookies & Cream Cheesecake

Stir in chunks of crushed up chocolate sandwich cookies into the cheesecake batter, and use the same cookies to make the crust.

Turtle Cheesecake

Make a chocolate cookie crust. Stir some mini chocolate chips into cheesecake batter. Once batter is in cupcake liner, swirl some caramel sauce on top of the batter and top with chopped pecans. Bake as directed.