Chocolate tortino

Finally a chocolate dessert. A "tortino", it's kind of like a muffin but with a chocolate heart. Creamy, rich chocolate on the inside with a delicate crust on the outside. Nothing like I've ever made before. Very easy and fast but requires some attention to the timing. Otherwise, you'll just get a chocolate muffin all the way through.

The original recipe asked for 13-15 minutes in the oven and not a minute longer. I had less batter in my forms than Sonia, the chef.  She made 4 muffins, I made 6. That made a big difference.  I baked mine 11 minutes, then let them cool for about 10, and they were perfect.

Not that they are not good the day after.

So, the best thing to use would be the aluminum cups, like the recipe said. I didn't have them at hand. I tried using just the muffin baking form, without the liners. I buttered the form and sifted with cocoa. I was able to take it out OK (the tortino on the picture), with the help of a knife, but it wasn't easy.  The dessert should be put upside down on the plate. Those with paper liners, they stay in paper liners. Not very chic.

It's a "spoon dessert", Italians say. You can prepare the batter ahead of time, and then impress everybody with a refine, satisfying, warm dessert. 

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano
time: 15 min preparation +13 min baking +10 min cooling = 38 min

ingredients

• 150 g (5.5 oz) dark chocolate
• 80 g (5 Tablespoons) butter
• 20 g (2 Tablespoons) flour
• 10 g (1 Tablespoon) cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 90 g (1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon) powder sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla sugar

extra butter and cocoa for aluminum cups if you use them

instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/355 F. Butter aluminium cups and cover with cocoa. Or prepare muffin liners in a muffin form.
2. Melt chocolate in a water bath. Never allow water to boil. Take it off the heat  and add butter, cut in small squares. Mix it with a wooded spatula and let melt together. Let it cool.
3. Sift flour and cocoa in a small bowl.
4. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and the yolk with sugars, till it's foamy, about 10 minutes.
5. Slowly incorporate melted chocolate mix and then the flour mix. Pour the batter into the prepared forms, filling them up to 3/4 of the cup.  Place them into the hot oven and bake 11-14 minutes, depending on the size of your muffin cups. The tortinos will solidify while cooling.