aren’t they just the best little food containers?  my obsession started a few months ago.  somehow i stumbled upon this brilliant idea: stuffing chocolate chip cookie dough into them, an inch or two deep, and baking them in the oven for 10-15 minutes–the deep-dish cookies are crispy on the outside, and still gooey on the inside.  they’re especially perfect with a perfectly spherical scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

the delicious, hot, texturey dessert sated me for a week or two, and then i found a recipe on Tasty Kitchen for a five-ingredient chocolate molten cake, designed to be enjoyed in a ramekin (of course).  everyone’s had a chocolate molten/lava cake, but this one only has five ingredients (my husband has made it himself!), comes together, in 5 minutes, and aside from the sugar, doesn’t have much against it, health-wise.  here are a few changes i made to the recipe you’ll find above: instead of the 60% cacao they suggest, i had 100%–and i loved it.  i halved the recipe, because 2 cakes is the perfect size for our two-person family, and instead of adding a yolk, or half one, i just used 1 egg.  for most of my baking recently, i’ve started using Smart Balance butter blend, and have loved it.  finally, i found that while powdered sugar really melts into the batter, usual granulated sugar, or even raw sugar, adds a nice crunch, too.

this morning, i tried a new egg-scramble method, outlined in this month’s Bon Apettit–crack 4 eggs into a small saucepan with 1 T butter.  heat over med-low heat, whisking constantly, till eggs thicken and begin to form small curds.  it’ll take longer than you think it should to thicken & curd, but once it starts, it all cooks very quickly.  don’t let it stay on the heat too long, just make sure most of the mixture is curdy; then, because special eggs deserve special presentation, i scooped them into ramekins and snipped flat-leaf parsley on top (i read last week that parsley is a great anti-inflammatory, so i’ve been putting it in everything).

TONIGHT: sticky toffee puddings in ramekins….