Katheryn's Kitchen – Lemon White Chocolate Lava Cake

Digging into the Lemon White Chocolate Lava Cakes

We were recently in Palm Springs and I brought back a number of fresh lemons that were growing on a tree in the yard of our rental house. We have some friends coming for dinner this weekend, so thought this would be a great dessert to make and I can utilize my lemons.

I like desserts I can make a day or so ahead. This batter can be made a day ahead, refrigerated and baked off the next day. The lemon curd can be made up to a week ahead of time, just cover and refrigerate. The thing is with this recipe, you need to bake off just before serving. They are served warm, with the centers gently flowing, when you dig into them, yum.

Ingredients:

Lemon Curd:

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1/2 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of unsalted butter cut up into chunks

6 egg yolks

Cake:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut up into chunks

4 oz of good quality of white chocolate cut up into chunks

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup lemon curd (see recipe above)

1 tablespoon of grated lemon peel

Icing sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Make lemon curd ahead of time. In a medium sized saucepan, combine lemon juice, peel, sugar and butter. Bring to a boil. Beat egg yolks in a medium sized bowl and slowly whisk in hot lemon juice mixture, Return everything to the pot and cook on medium heat, stirring, until mixture starts to bubble and thickens. Strain lemon curd into a bowl making sure you use a spatula to get everything off the bottom of the strainer. Cool. You should have about 1 1/2 cups- use 3/4 cup for this recipe and refrigerate or freeze the rest. If you like, serve the cakes with the extra lemon curd. Lemon curd can be made up to a week ahead of time.

2. For the cakes, melt butter and white chocolate in a stainless steel bowl set in a skillet of simmering water. Stir until smooth. In another bowl whisk together flour, icing sugar and salt. In another bowl combine eggs and egg yolks.

3. Stir flour mixture into butter/white chocolate mixture. Then stir in eggs and then lemon curd and grated lemon peel.

4. Spray or butter 8 ramekins and fill each with a generous 1/3 cup of batter. Place on a baking sheet, cover and refrigerate until ready to bake or bake right away. You can make this batter a day ahead.

Lava Cake Batter

5. Preheat oven to 425° F. Bake 10-12 minutes, dependant on your oven and the size of your ramekin, until top puffs up slightly and edges are slightly browned. If they are over baked they will not be “lava like”. Let rest a few minutes, slide a thin knife around the inside edge of the ramekin, invert onto dessert plates and dust with icing sugar. Serve with the extra lemon curd and some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.