the pragmatic chef™

The Pragmatic Chef's™ "Cowboy Cupcakes"

Makes a little over 3 cups of batter, enough for six 5 oz. ramekins.

Ingredients:

1/2 C pine nuts
2t kosher salt (approx.)
1/4 C flour

2t ancho Chile powder
1/4t pequin chile powder (potent stuff, optional)
1/4t cinnamon
1t instant coffee (don't laugh, it works)
1/4C light brown sugar
1/4C sugar

6 oz. good bittersweet chocolate (get as snobby as you want, even Hershey's is okay)
4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter- use salted if you have to

4 eggs
1t vanilla extract (buy the good stuff)

Preheat your oven to 325º.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan, making sure you get some really good color on them. Take them out of the pan, let them cool a few minutes, salt them generouly, then put them in a plastic bag or some foil and crush them with whatever you're got handy.

Using the wrapper from the butter, take a little piece and butter the ramekins. I also rolled sugar in them in the picture, but I don't know if I'd bother when I do it again.

Mix the spices and sugars in a small prep bowl, then add the crushed, salted pine nuts.

Break your chocolate and butter up into smaller pieces together in a nuke-safe bowl and zap it for about a minute. No more. Stir it up and let it sit. If it's not quite melted, hit it again but don't do it all at once or you'll have nasty, scorched chocolate.

In a large bowl, add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk it until combined and smooth but don't try to beat air into it like you would a soufflé, especially if you're not going to bake these right away. This is an easy recipe, remember?

Add your dry ingredient mixture and combine well. Make sure your chocolate is smooth then whisk that in, too.

Put about a 1/2 cup of the mixture in each ramekin, then distribute what's left over. You ramekins should be a little over 1/2 full. Wipe the top edge carefully, don't worry about the sides.

Put them on a sheet pan and pop them into the middle of the oven if you're baking them right away. If you're cooking them later, put a little piece of plastic wrap directly on the batter so it doesn't skin over, then refrigerate. Make sure they're at room temperature when you bake them, take them out of the fridge as you start to cook dinner but don't leave them on the counter for more than 2 hours or so because of the uncooked eggs. Common sense, as always, applies.

Bake them for about 25 minutes without opening the door. They probably won't start rising for ten or fifteen minutes, so don't flip it out of you don't get instant gratification. Test with a skewer near the edge if you want, there should definitely be batter sticking to it, so your eye is as good of a test as any, really. They should rise above the rim of the ramekin as in the picture and it's better to pull them a few minutes early than a few minutes late.

Serve immediately. Like I needed to tell you that?