Recipe: Chocolate banana lava cake

Not all lava cakes are equal, but this one is insanely good.  When I first did this recipe in Hong Kong, I was a bit burnt out on the idea - I had done them countless times in Vancouver and was ready to move on.  It was that subtle hint of banana that turned me.  The original recipe had quite a bit less, and it was already a big hit in our restaurant.  As I made batch after batch, I gradually upped the banana bit by bit, and the cakes just got better.  I stopped once the banana content equaled the chocolate, more or less on principle.  Beyond the progressively improved flavour, by upping the banana, I effectively reduced the overall flour content, which in turn made for a more tender product - I figured if you can have lava cake recipes with only trace amounts of flour, I had a bit of wiggle room to work with.  The cornstarch is an effective variation as well - you maintain a certain level of binding power with an inherently softer product.  You can get pretty aggressive with the molten centre as well - I was using a small hemisphere mold to make balls about the size of a large marble (they weighed in at about 16 grams each), which is pretty substantial when using a 4oz mold.  To help things stay where they should until baking, it is important to partially fill the molds then chill them - as the butter and chocolate set up, they will be able to support the weight of the chocolate centre.  Using the 4oz molds, this recipe would give me 10 - 12 portions and are best if cooked from raw within 3 - 4 days of making them.  We also used tin molds, so if you use ceramic, add a few minutes to the cooking time to allow the heat to work through the ceramic.

You will need:

200g / 7oz                      dark chocolate (70%) - plus more for the molten centres - up to 16g each

200g / 7oz                      bananas

110g / 3.9oz                   pastry flour

110g / 3.9oz                   cornstarch

40g / 1.4oz                     sugar

20g / 0.7oz                     butter - plus more for the cups

6                                     eggs

Method:

 - have your chocolate for the molten centres prepared and set aside

 - butter your molds well and keep refrigerated

 - melt the chocolate

 - puree the banana

 - sift the flour and cornstarch together

 - separate the eggs

 - whip the egg whites to medium peak, then beat in the sugar

 - beat the egg yolks pale

 - beat the butter into the yolks

 - beat in the banana puree

 - stir in the chocolate

 - fold in the whipped whites alternating with the flour and cornstarch blend

 - fill the cups 1/4 to 1/3 full, then chill to firm up the batter

 - add the chocolate for the molten centres and cover with batter

 - refrigerate

 - preheat the oven to 392F / 200C

 - bake 7 - 8 minutes, more if you have ceramic molds or a very big piece of chocolate in the middle

 - invert to unmold, and serve