My sister told me, in another context that had to with lame gifts she was saddled with and not great gift ideas, but she told me, my sister, about how when they do gift exchanges at work she’ll do something like buy a set of muffin tins, make black bottom cupcakes and deliver to her secret santa the tins, the cupcakes and a recipe. Or a cookie sheet, same story. And people don’t appreciate this.

Which is just weird.  I’ll just put it out there that if you want to make me cookies, you don’t even have to give me the cookie sheet.

A long, long time ago, Noah or I clipped a recipe for “Molten Chocolate Babycakes.” We had to get married before anyone would give us enough ramekins to actually make them, but it was worth the wait. We inaugurated them with a helluva party trick of our own, which involved bringing the ramekins of batter to a dinner party and sticking them in the oven halfway through dinner.

  • 4 T  soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the dishes
  • 12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (preferably high in cocoa solids)
  • 4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup superfine sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup flour

Heat oven to 400 degrees; butter 6 ramekins (they say to line the bottoms with parchment but we didn’t.)

Melt chocolate over low heat and let it cool.

Cream together 4 tablespoons butter and the sugar.

Gradually add egg mixture, then vanilla, then flour. Mix well. Add chocolate and blend until smooth.

Fill the ramekins and arrange them on a baking sheet; bake 10-12 minutes. Or 15. We left them in longer than 10-12 minutes.

You can file these under kosher for passover, too, if you can handle the density of matzo flour. It won’t ruin them, and as passover desserts go it is pretty good.