When I received “La Tartine Gourmande” by Béatrice Peltre in the mail, I was walking around Edgartown, so I settled in for a coffee and a browsing of this gorgeous cookbook. I spent the next hour sipping on my Mocha Latte and reading this book. The author’s words enthralled me, and the colors, styling, and simply delicious food made me hungry for more than a coffee.
Béatrice Peltre is the author of the award-winning blog, LaTartineGourmande.com, and this cookbook is living proof that we eat through our eyes. Béatrice captures the brightness in fruits and vegetables with the earthy tones of whole grains, making you just want to reach into the book and have a bite!
Her recipes are meant “to inspire”, and as I flipped through, I left a post-it in every recipe I wanted to try. More than half of them were marked, so how would I narrow down a recipe to make for the blog? I asked my husband of course!
Ultimately it came down to the Beet and Quinoa Tabouli and the hazelnut molten lava cakes.
Yeah, the quinoa didn’t really stand a chance against warm, unctuous chocolate. I’m sharing this recipe with you, thanks to permission from Roost Books in Boston.
I’ve already made the hazelnut molten lava cakes three times (small batches). I used almond meal instead of hazelnut flour in one batch, and the cakes came out beautifully!
Here’s the recipe for the hazelnut molten lava cakes. I hope you enjoy them!
Hazelnut Molten Lava Cakes
Rich chocolate hazelnut cake with a center of liquid chocolate. Decadent and delicious!
Print Recipe

Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons 85 g; 3 oz unsalted butter, plus more for the molds
- Flour of your choice to dust the molds
- 4 oz 115 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- ¼ cup 50 g; 1 ¾ oz blond cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon fleur de sel
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons 22 ½ g; ¾ oz hazelnut or millet flour
- 1 oz 30 g hazelnut-flavored chocolate, cut into 4 pieces
- Confectioners’ sugar to dust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC). Butter the ramekins, then coat them with flour and tap the excess out. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a bain-marie.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs, sugar, and fleur de sel and beat until the batter has tripled in volume and is light and pale in color (about 8 minutes). Add vanilla and fold in the flour, then the melted chocolate-butter mixture, making sure to keep the batter light each time.
- Divide three-quarters of the batter among the ramekins and add one piece of hazelnut chocolate at the center of each mold. Cover with the rest of the batter. At this point, if you want, you can refrigerate the cakes until you are ready to bake and serve them. If you do, bring them back to room temperature before baking.
- Place cakes in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes (if you bake 6 cakes, they tend to need 10 minutes only). The less time you bake the cakes, the more gooey the inside will be. Remove from oven and leave them to rest for 5 minutes. Invert onto dessert plates or serve them in the ramekins. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Notes
You will need: four ¾-cup ramekins or six 2/3-cup ramekins
Servings: 4 -6
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Wow, that looks fantastic! What is fleur de sel? Is it gluten free, because it looks like everything else can be! woohoo!
Talk about heaven in a ramekin http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2008/07/07/chocolate-vanilla-pot-creme-french-dessert/
Pass me a bowl. Can I dig in? Recipes sounds simple and I am bookmarking this.
This gluten-free apple galette sounds amazing, plus I am all about addinf in chia seeds! http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2011/11/21/gluten-free-apple-galette-chia-seeds/
Simply divine. Can I dig in? 😉
“Happy Cooking”
I’m a sucker for tarts — http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2008/10/30/lemon-poppyseed-yogurt-tart/ so elegant – thanks for this awesome giveaway! That cake looks delicious.
Now I want some Molte cake!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe, can’t wait to get back to the DR to make some of these.
I am not so sure about the comments thingy, but I left one here http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2012/02/14/lemon-verrine-recipe-gluten-free/comment-page-1/#comment-1285504
You know how much I love lemons and I am surely going to give a try to making that lemon verrines 🙂
http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2012/02/14/lemon-verrine-recipe-gluten-free/
I am all about lemons! This sounds wonderful!
moo77hb@gmail.com
Don’t know quite what you mean by leaving a link. I did comment on the yummiest looking strawberry tart. http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2011/06/28/gluten-free-strawberry-tartlets-mascarpone/comment-page-2/#comment-1285464
Thanks
Omg, this Molten cake looks heavenly! I want to try this right now.Heading over to La Tartine Gourmande as you suggested. Thanks for sharing this, Nelly! Now, where’s my own serving of the Molten Cake, pls.?