Staring at the golf ball-sized nugget of leftover chocolate chip cookie dough in my fridge, I knew I had two choices: I could throw it into the trash, or I could bake it off and eat it for dessert. My brain—full of the pesky memory of skipping the gym that morning—told me to do the former. But the activist in me, that responsible citizen of the Earth thatwastes as little food as possible, told me to get baking.
The dough would yield two, maybe two and a half cookies, at most, so I fired up my toaster oven instead of my full-size one. But I had a problem. When I baked the first batch of this dough, the cookies spread into thin wafers. Knowing this, I grabbed a ramekin and stuffed the dough inside. I would force the cookie to take shape by restricting how far it could travel.
Eight minutes later, the cookie in that ramekin was golden and pulling away from the edges. I took it out of the toaster oven and let it cool for, oh, about 5 seconds before digging in.
一条河的融化的面团。这就是我发现的时候I spooned the cookie. It was hot, molten cookie dough streaked with dark lines of chocolate. I initially thought to stick the cookie back into the oven for more baking, but I immediately saw the error of my ways. There was nothing more this cookie needed. This cookie was perfect.
Cookies baked in ramekins aren't really a thing, but after spending a week testing these cookies in the Epi Test Kitchen, my colleagues and I can't figure out why. The benefits are multiple. Cookie dough baked in ramekins can achieve that molten middle (use 1/4 cup of dough per ramekin, and bake them in a small ramekin at 425 degrees for about 8 minutes), or they can be baked through (just add a few more minutes to the bake time). In the under-baked iteration, it's a very decadent dessert for one (or two, if you're feeling romantical and care to share). In the completely baked iteration, the cookie can be nudged out of the ramekin—a perfectly shaped, slightly oversized cookie perfect for gifting.
Personally, I like the cookies to stay in the ramekin. The ramekin is a cookie's tuxedo. Bake any type of cookie at all in a ramekin, and it becomes 75% more formal (and a set of 6 ramekinscosts under $15if you're looking to stock up). At a dinner party, wait until you're clearing the plates to slip the ramekins into the oven (arranging them on a rimmed baking sheet makes this even easier). Minutes later, when the cookies are (under)done, top with ice cream, whipped cream, or, hell, just cream (a very British move), and serve to your guests immediately. In this scenario, you aren't serving cookies; you're serving a proper dessert.
