Chocolate Lava Surprise

This is the most delicious, forgiving yet impressive yummy chocolate pud I've ever made. There is something special about breaking through the chocolate outer shell to uncover a gooey chocolate lava stream that oozes out onto the pristine white plate. 

It is the perfect dinner party delight as it will surprise the oblivious guests and make you feel like an accomplished chef (if you get it right..no pressure). You can make the mixture  days in advance, put into the ramekins, freeze & then defrost a couple of hours before you want to cook them, or simply make on the day and put into the oven 10 minutes before you want to serve. 

Serves 4

125g finest quality dark chocolate (70% +)

125g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

150g sugar

35g plain flour (Italian 00 is ideal)

butter & flour to prepare the ramekins

Method

- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and grease 4 ramekins with butter and dust with flour. Put the chocolate and butter suspended over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt (if you're feeling lazy, put in the microwave for about a minute to 90 seconds, but pause and check often).  Stir gently until smooth and beautiful.

- In a separate bowl, whisk the golden caster sugar with 3 large eggs.

- Combine the 2 bowls, beat together and then stir in 35g plain flour.

- When you’ve finished your main course and you feel like you could eat again, divide the mixture into 4-5 ramekins and bake hot for 8-10 minutes until they are well risen and cracked on top.  Serve with sprinkled icing sugar and single cream. I like to add a couple of raspberries to give it more colour and attempt to make it look slightly healthy.

When you break into it, it should look like this below…mmmm!