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Chocolate Hazelnut Lava Cake

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Chocolate lava cakes are so irresistible as they are cakey on the outside with warm dark chocolate sauce flowing through the middle. This recipe is actually quite easy to make and ready in under an hour.

You will be amazed how easy they can be whipped up with only a handful of simple ingredients including good quality dark chocolate. These are enriched with ground toasted hazelnuts which makes these chocolate lava cakes extra delicious. Serve each chocolate lava cakes with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

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These indulgent little lava cakes are perfect for a dinner party. Lava cakes are rich chocolate cake and chocolate sauce all in one, and they are surprisingly easy to make in under an hour.

If you like to plan ahead, you can prepare the batter a day in advance, refrigerate it, then pop the cake into the oven when you are ready for dessert. Be sure to use chopped chocolate bars rather than chocolate chips here. 

More easy dessert recipes
you'll want to try:

Almond Cheesecake Truffles
Vanilla Ice-Cream

What you'll need for chocolate hazelnut lava cake

The batter for these gooey chocolate cakes is made easily and quickly once you have ready following ingredients:

Making the batter for chocolate hazelnut lava cake

The recipe start with melting chocolate and butter over a double boiler. We recommend using a quality dark chocolate brand with at least 60% cocoa. 

Continue with beating eggs, sugar and salt for a few minutes. Pour chocolate mixture into the eggs then fold flour and cocoa powder. Do this gently using silicon spatula. In the end add ground hazelnuts and stir until just combined. Your mixture is ready to be baked and turned into yummy chocolate lava cake.

What to bake these chocolate lava cakes in

Before making the batter you should prepare a set of pudding moulds or porcelain ramekins. We used these small pudding moulds perfect for single-serve lava cakes. Moulds we use are quite small but these cakes are super rich and one of these is enough to satisfy the most demanding chocolate lover. This batter is enough for 4 fondants.

If you don't have any pudding moulds, you could use small porcelain ramekins instead and prepare them in the same way as pudding moulds.

How to prepare pudding moulds

First melt some butter and brush all over the inside of each pudding mould. Add spoonful of cocoa powder and tilt the mould until the cocoa completely coats the bottom and sides. Keep them in the fridge until the batter is ready. This preparation helps the baked fondants release easily from the moulds onto the serving plates once baked.

Baking chocolate hazelnut lava cakes

The only tricky part of this recipe is knowing when to take lava cakes out of the oven. 30 seconds too long and they turn into dry cake instead of gooey chocolate treat. 

Baking time can be anywhere from 5-8 minutes - depending on your oven and the size of your moulds. Fondants are ready when sides are slightly firm but the center is soft and still wobbly when you shake them.

We suggest you to test with baking one lava cake to check the right timing, before putting them all. This way you will have perfect chocolate fondants with amazing gooey chocolate centers. 

Making ahead chocolate hazelnut fondant

These simple dessert is ideal for making ahead. Make the batter for the lava cakes and keep in the fridge covered until for up to 24 hours. 

You can also divide the batter between moulds, freeze them for up to 1 month. To bake from frozen add an extra 4-5 minutes to the baking time.



If you don’t want to bake lava cakes right away, you can cover the ramekins tightly with cling film and refrigerate for up to 2 days (make sure the batter is at room temperature before you finally bake it). 

A few of our popular chocolate recipes:



Chocolate Hazelnut Lava Cake

SERVES: 4 lava cakes
COOKS IN: 30 minutes
LEVEL: Easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 90g hazelnuts (2/3 cup)
  • 3 eggs, at room temperature
  • 100g brown sugar (like demerara) (1/2 cup)
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 110g dark chocolate 60-70% (4 ounces)
  • 100g butter (7 tbsp)
  • 40g plain flour (1/3 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp butter, for greasing moulds
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, for dusting the moulds


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Arrange the hazelnuts in a single layer on baking sheet lined with baking paper and toast for about 8-10 minutes, stirring them every 2-3 minutes. They are done when they are fragrant and their skin cracked. 

  2. Remove from the oven and rub them in kitchen towel until the skin comes off. Cool nuts completely then blitz 60g in the food processor until finely ground while the rest chop coarsely o a cutting board. Set aside. Rise the oven temperature to 180 C.

  3. Melt small piece of butter and brush generously the insides of 4 individual pudding moulds and dust with cocoa powder. Tilt and rotate to coat the bottom and sides evenly. Tap out any excess. Chill the moulds in the fridge for 10 minutes.

  4. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until the chocolate has melted, add Amaretto and then set aside to cool.

  5. Beat the eggs, sugar and salt using an electric hand mixer in a large bowl until pale and thick.

  6. Add melted chocolate to the eggs, then gently fold in flour and cocoa powder using a spatula. Add ground hazelnuts and stir to combine.

  7. Divide the mixture among pudding moulds filling each 3/4 full and bake in the preheated oven for 6-8 minutes. The centres should still be runny. 

  8. Leave the fondants to cool for 1-2 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the dishes then using kitchen towel gently turn over the fondant on the serving plate. Serve straight away with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.



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