Mondays With Mireille

Seasons Greetings everyone & I hope you had a great weekend :)
Hard to believe, but we're now less than two weeks away from Christmas day...
Three quick things to mention before we get to Monday's With Mireille:


1. I finished "The Half-Blood Prince" over the weekend and started into the final book
in the Harry Potter series, "The Deathly Hallows"
As with any good book (& especially book series) I've become so invested in these
characters - they're so real to me now - that I really hate the thought of finishing the series.

As I've mentioned before, I managed to collect the whole series secondhand over the
summer & fall and spent approximately $15 in total.
When I was in Chapters the other day, I priced out the complete box set at $220!!!


2. I wrapped all gifts and put together stockings over the weekend... 
a world record for me - I'm so glad there won't be an exhausting late-night
Christmas Eve wrapping spree this year, lol!


3. Merry Christmas to ME! 
I found this handmade pottery owl pitcher at Goodwill on Friday :)

Thrilled doesn't begin to describe my feelings when I spotted it -
I was positively giddy!
$4 (crazy!) I'm certain I could easily sell it online for $80 or more (but I won't).


And now, without further adieu...
After last week's disappointment, I was hoping Mireille would redeem herself 
and I'm pleased to say she did!

Chocolate Moelleux With Walnuts

5 ounces dark chocolate (above 70 percent cocoa)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the molds (I used salted)

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup flour

About 2/3 cup sugar

4 tablespoons fresh walnut pieces, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it with the butter in a bowl set atop simmering water. Let cool, then add the egg yolks and flour. Mix well.

3. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and incorporate in small batches into the melted chocolate. Do the same with the sugar.

4. Butter 4 small individual molds and fill them halfway with the batter. I used 4 ramekins. Add 1 tablespoon of walnuts to each mold and cover with more batter. Bake in the preheated oven 12 to 14 minutes, until a crust has begun to form but the middle is still soft. Unmold and serve warm.

Overall impressions: Very rich, moist and yummy, with a lovely sparkling outer crust; my house smelled as delicious as they tasted! Much like a brownie in many respects, but less cakey and more chocolaty than a brownie. Best served with vanilla ice cream - unfortunately, I found out last minute that I only had orange sherbet on hand.... so I used it in place - strictly for the photo op. The only modifications I'll try next time are less flour and sugar, 1/3 cup flour (+ 1 tablespoon) rather than the 1/2 called for and a few less tablespoons of sugar - I found the batter too stiff and as a consequence the egg whites did not fold in as lightly I'd have expected them to. An fyi: although I'd generously buttered the ramekins prior to adding the batter, I still needed to run a butter knife around the edge a few times in order to unmold them. Give these a try sometime, and make sure you have vanilla ice cream on hand :)

"Portion control is more an art than a discipline, one grounded in a useful bit of self-deception...

One trick I use to control my intake is to ask myself if I can live with half the amount being

offered; indeed, will I be just as happy eating half as much?"

~ Mireille Guiliano ~