SERVES 4
NOTE: If scaling this recipe up, use a ratio of whites:yolks of 3:2 if possible, rather than the 4:3 listed below.
4 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (65% - 80%)
1 ⅓ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 egg whites
big pinch salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Laughing Monk Devil's Hoard Imperial Belgian Stout
Some extra butter and granulated sugar for preparing the ramekins
- Preheat oven to 425. Put the oven rack in the middle.
- Prepare the baking dishes. Butter the insides of the ramekins. Sprinkle some granulated sugar in each ramekin and roll it around so it sticks to the sides. Set ramekins aside onto the sheet pan.
- Melt chocolate. Put a few inches of water in one saucepan and put on the stove to boil. Once it’s started boiling, turn down the heat to low. Break up the chocolate into small hunks and put it in the frying pan. Set the frying pan on top of the saucepan that has the water. Let this sit until the chocolate melts. It’s OK to stir with a spatula if you want to. Proceed to step 4 in the meantime, while the chocolate melts.
- 4. Prepare the roux. Put the flour in the other saucepan, over medium heat on the stove. While whisking, add in the milk slowly. Then, continue whisking, add the butter. Cook, whisking frequently, until the mixture starts to boil. Once it boils, keep going for about 2 minutes more, until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Stir for a minute more to cool it off somewhat.
- Turn the roux into tasty beery chocolate sauce! Add vanilla into roux. Stir. Add the egg yolks into roux. As you separate the three eggs, put the whites in the bowl of the stand mixer and the yolks into the roux. Stir the sauce after each one. Add the melted chocolate into the sauce. Stir. Add the beer into the sauce. Stir.
- Prepare the egg whites. Mix the egg whites on high until they reach soft peaks. Add salt and granulated sugar. Mix until stiff peaks.
- Fold everything together. Take a scoop of the egg whites out of the mixer and put it in the chocolate mixture. Stir normally. Then, pour the pan of chocolate sauce into the mixer bowl with the egg whites. Gently fold together until there are no longer visible clumps of egg whites. Don’t overbeat - the less you touch it, the fluffier the final product will be.
- Pour into ramekins. Pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins. Wipe off any drips from the sides of the ramekins.
- Cook! Put the sheet pan with ramekins in the oven. Close oven door, turn heat down to 375. Bake for 16 minutes.
