This date night dessert is just perfect to celebrate love! You can make this decadent dessert for valentines day, anniversary or any romantic dinner at home.
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If you were trying to find a delicious and decadent dessert for your romantic dinner, then look no further, because you've just found it! This molten chocolate soufflé is topped with strawberries, chocolate sauce, almonds and a delicious ice cream bar. It's amazing as a valentine's day dessert, date night dessert, anniversary dessert or for any other romantic occasion you might have.
I ate this dessert for the first time at a restaurant called Paris 6, in Brazil, and I fell in love with it at first glance. Now, imagine how happy I was when I saw that they were sharing the recipe with the public!?!?!
The recipe is super simple, but I did need to make some modifications because the original recipe, although super delicious, is very very sweet. So I adapted the batter a little bit and changed a few ingredients in the chocolate sauce, so it would be less sweet and enjoyable from the beginning to the very last bite.
Molten Chocolate Soufflé
Can you imagine how delicious a molten Chocolate Soufflé is?? It's soft and airy, but at the same time creamy and decadent! Oh my goodness, it's so good!!
Oh, and don't be afraid of the word "soufflé". It might make you think it's something hard to make, but trust me, it's super easy! Let me show you...
How to make an easy chocolate soufflé
Melt chocolate and butter in microwave or double boiler
Beat eggs and sugar until light and almost tripled in volume.
Lighten the chocolate adding about ½ cup of the beaten eggs
Add the rest of the beaten eggs to the chocolate/egg mixture.
Pour batter equally between 2 ramekins, leaving about 1 inch for them to rise.
Bake it until it has risen and a little crust has been created (10-12 min).
*Whole instructions in the recipe card, down in the post.
- Don't worry about the center of the souffle being runny. It's safe to eat it. According to USDA, dishes containing raw eggs should reach 160ºF to be safe to eat. I checked with a thermometer, and this dish reached 183ºF.
How to melt chocolate without burning or seizing it
Chocolate is very sensitive, and it's really easy to burn it or seize it. So here as some things you can do to melt your chocolate successfully.
Melting in the microwave: In a glass bowl, place small pieces of chocolate, cut roughly the same size or just use chocolate chips. This way you'll avoid having one small piece completely melted and a bigger one not even close to melting.
Place it in the microwave and heat it in 30 seconds intervals, stirring well in between. This way the chocolate that is attached to the edges of the bowl will get mixed with the chocolate in the center, distributing the heat more evenly and melting it uniformly, thus preventing it from burning.
Stop heating it when the chocolate is mostly melted, with just a few small semi-melted pieces. The carried on heat will melt what is left in the bowl, as you finish stirring it. If you keep heating it, you might start overheating the chocolate.
Melting with the double boiler method: Add about 1 inch of water to a small/medium sauce pan, turn on the low heat and bring the water to a simmer.
Place the chocolate (small and uniform sizes) in a glass bowl that you can place on top of the pan. This way the steam under the bowl will melt the chocolate.
How to save seized chocolate
If you are melting your chocolate slowly in the microwave or using the double boiler method, and suddenly you realize that your chocolate is getting thick, grainy and not shiny at all, your chocolate probably seized. That means that a little bit of moisture got inside your chocolate (even steam can do that). Or, if you are melting your chocolate with cream or butter - which is the case for this recipe - you probably didn't add enough.
In this case, more moisture can save your seized chocolate, and by moisture I mean, cream, butter, vegetable oil, milk... Whatever is more convenient to your recipe.
Think of it as a bechamel sauce. When you combine flour and melted butter it clumps up. As you add more liquid it starts to become a cream, and as you add more and more liquid it starts to become more fluid.
Same thing goes to chocolate. Chocolate is very dry, and it's dryer the higher the cacao percentage is. So if you add just a tiny bit of liquid, the cacao will cling to it and become clumpy, but as you add more liquid, it will dissolve, becoming fluid again.
So now you know. If your chocolate seizes, just add a teaspoon of liquid at a time - for this recipe butter works great - warm it up again, and mix it vigorously until it dissolves and becomes fluid again.
If you would like more information on this, this article about How to fix seized chocolate is great!
How to make the Chocolate Sauce
Although this chocolate sauce has Nutella, it's not overly sweet. The combination of cream, semi-sweet chocolate and Nutella makes for a delicious sauce, with a rich chocolate taste, and sweetness that's just right.
For this Semi-sweet chocolate Nutella sauce, the only thing you have to do is heat up the cream, chocolate and Nutella in the microwave in 30 seconds intervals, stirring each time, until it's all melted and completely combined.
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📖 Recipe / Receita
Date Night Dessert
Ingredients
For the Molten Chocolate Souffle
- 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or small and uniform chopped chocolate)
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- ⅓ cups granulated sugar
Chocolate syrup
- 5 fl. oz. heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon hazelnut cocoa Spread (Nutella or another brand)
- ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Extra Toppings
- 10 oz strawberries (cleaned)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ cup almonds, chopped (measure and then chop)
- 2 ice cream bars
Instructions
- Start by chopping your strawberries and combining it with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix it well, cover, and set aside in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 410ºF.
Chocolate Syrup
- Inside a bowl add heavy cream, hazelnut cocoa spread (Nutella), and chocolate chips. Heat it up on low heat (microwaving on 30 seconds intervals works well), until chocolate chips and spread are melted, and can be easily incorporated into the heavy cream. Mix everything until well combined and set aside in the refrigerator.
Molten Chocolate Souffle
- Add 1 inch of water into a small/medium saucepan, and turn on the low heat. Add a tempered glass bowl on top of the saucepan, in a way that the steam will be kept inside the pan.
- Add butter and chocolate chips to the bowl and with a metal ou plastic spoon, mix it occasionally to help it melt and combine. Make sure that the water in the pot is not touching the glass and is not boiling. If it comes close to a boil you can turn off the heat. (We don't need excessive heat, because chocolate is very sensitive to temperature). You can also use a microwave, heating and mixing in 30 seconds intervals. Let the residual heat in the bowl finish melting the last semi-melted chocolate chips remaining, to avoid burning the chocolate. Once chocolate is completely melted and mixed with butter, set the bowl aside to cool down.
- With the help of a mixer, beat the eggs and egg yolk, until it's all mixed. Slowly add the sugar and continue to beat, on high speed, until it's light yellow and it almost triples in volume. (It can take about 7-10 minutes, depending on your mixer's power).
- Add about ½ cup of the egg mixture to the melted chocolate. Stir to combine (this will lighten the chocolate mixture). Then, with a rubber spatula, add the rest of the egg mixture on top of the chocolate, gently folding the chocolate into the batter with a flipping motion. You'll end up with a very light and airy chocolate batter.
- Pour the batter equally into two 9 oz. ramekins (leaving about ¾ of an inch of space on top). Place them on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes. The exact time will depend on your oven. You can remove it once you see that it has surpassed the rim of the dish just a little bit (or got at least close to it) and it has created a crust on top. When you touch the souffle, it should feel wiggly inside.If overbaked it won't be molten inside.
Assembling the dish
- Using a kitchen tong, place the ramekin on a big plate, immediately after you remove it from the oven.
- Get the ice cream bar and insert it into the Molten chocolate souffle. Drizzle the chocolate sauce on top and around the dish. Add the strawberries and chopped almonds on top and around the dessert. You can also add extra heart candy to make it even more romantic.
Notes
All nutritional information above is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Nutritional content may vary according to brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, substitutions, optional ingredients, etc. Simple Living Recipes is not responsible for any miscalculation or misinformation in the nutrition label.
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