Bouchons

“Bouchon”, meaning “cork”……the characteristic shape of these little brownies if you happen to own this specialty pan, which I don’t. I baked these little chocolate cakes in a mini muffin tin instead.

The batter comes together quickly, but as with most of the recipes I’ve come across in this book, this is not a spur-of-the-moment brownie as the batter needs to rest for a few hours before baking. The upside is that it’s an excellent make-ahead recipe as the batter can be stored for a few days before using.

Given how detailed this book is, I’m surprised that internal temperatures aren’t provided as a determination of doneness of baked goods, especially with a small brownie where a minute or 2 too long in the oven is enough to change the texture dramatically. My brownies were smaller than the bouchons are – the recipe yielded 24 – so I kept my eye on them and relied on a clean toothpick to tell me when they were done (12 minutes).

These moist, rich, intensely chocolate-y little cakes are delicious but not to everyone’s taste as the flavour leans towards the bittersweet but I'll definitely be making these again.