Chilli and chocolate is an old pairing. Doing it through the butter is the elegant version. Bordier's Espelette Pepper Butter carries AOP Espelette pepper in a salted base, so a single ingredient brings heat, salt and fat to the batter at once. The recipe has five components and two steps, but it needs an hour of lead time: thirty minutes chilling before it goes anywhere near the oven, then twelve to fifteen minutes to bake.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Easy
- Serves: 2
- Active time: About 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling
- Cook: 10 to 15 minutes at 180C, 350F
- Key ingredient: 70 g Bordier Espelette Pepper Butter, plus a knob for the molds
Why this works
Bordier made the Espelette Pepper Butter from 2008, after meeting a producer in the Basque village the pepper is named for. It is AOP Espelette worked into a salted butter, and both halves of that matter in a dessert. Espelette is a mild, fruity chilli that arrives late and warm rather than up front, so it lengthens the finish of dark chocolate instead of burning through it. The salt in the base does what a pinch of salt always does in a chocolate dessert: it sharpens the cocoa and keeps 70 g of sugar from tasting flat.
The structure is a classic coulant. There is almost no flour, just 5 g, so the batter has nothing holding it together except egg and set chocolate. That is what produces the molten center: the outside sets into a thin cake and the middle never gets hot enough to firm up. The thirty-minute chill before baking is not optional in that design, since a cold center buys you the margin between a runny middle and a fully baked one. Bordier butter is churned by hand in Brittany on a wooden malaxeur, which gives it a soft, even texture that melts smoothly with chocolate in a bain-marie.
Ingredients
Serves 2. Weigh everything if you can, since the margins in a lava cake are small.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Dark chocolate | 70 g | 2.5 oz |
| Bordier Espelette Pepper Butter, plus a knob for greasing the molds | 70 g | 2.5 oz, about 5 tbsp |
| Eggs | 2 | 2 |
| Sugar | 70 g | 2.5 oz, about 1/3 cup |
| Flour | 5 g | 1 level tbsp |
Method
Step 1: Melt and mix
At least an hour before you plan to serve, grease the molds. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it with the butter in a bain-marie. Off the heat, add the sugar, then the eggs one at a time, then the flour, in that order.
Step 2: Chill and bake
Pour the batter into the molds, cover them, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 180C, 350F, gas mark 4, and bake the cakes for 10 to 15 minutes. Bordier's own tip: serve them as soon as a crust has formed.
Tips from our kitchen
- Grease the molds properly and early. Bordier tells you to do this first for a reason. Use the knob of Espelette butter, get it into every corner with a pastry brush, and chill the molds. A lava cake that sticks tears open on the plate and the center runs out before anyone sees it.
- The crust is the timer, not the clock. Bordier gives 10 to 15 minutes and lists 15 minutes as the cooking time in the header. Watch the top rather than the timer: the moment the surface dulls and sets into a matte crust while the middle still moves, take them out. Our own molds are usually done at 12 minutes.
- Weigh, do not scoop. Bordier's page gives cup equivalents that are approximate at best, particularly for the chocolate and the butter. At these quantities a 10 g error in one direction is the difference between molten and baked through.
- Do not skip the chill. Thirty minutes in the refrigerator drops the center temperature so the outside sets before the middle catches up. A room-temperature batter bakes evenly, which is exactly what you do not want here.
- Cool the chocolate before the eggs. Adding eggs to hot melted chocolate curdles them into threads. Let the mixture come down to warm after the sugar goes in, then add the eggs one at a time.
- Choose the chocolate deliberately. Bordier says dark and gives no percentage. Around 70% cocoa is where we land: darker than that and the sugar cannot balance it, sweeter and the Espelette has nothing to push against. That is our guidance rather than Bordier's.
How to serve it
Turn them out onto warm plates the moment they leave the oven and serve them alone, or with cold cream or a scoop of plain ice cream for contrast. The Espelette shows up a beat after the chocolate, so give people a moment before you ask what they think. If this is your first Bordier flavored butter used in a dessert, our Madagascar Vanilla Butter Brioche is the sweeter, gentler entry point into the same idea.
Where to buy Bordier Espelette Pepper Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Espelette Pepper Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): salted Breton butter carrying AOP Espelette pepper, mild and fruity rather than fiercely hot.
For the rest of the range, including the unsalted and demi-sel blocks, browse the Maison Bordier collection.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier Espelette Pepper Butter do I need for this recipe?
70 g goes into the batter, plus a knob for greasing the molds, so call it about 80 g. Bordier blocks are 4.4 oz, or 125 g, so one block covers a single batch with roughly 45 g to spare. If you are making it for four, buy two blocks.
Can I substitute a different Bordier butter?
The Chocolate and Cacao Nib butter is the closest thematically and makes a deeper, less spicy cake. The plain Salted butter works and gives you a straightforward salted chocolate coulant. Neither delivers the Espelette warmth, which is the whole reason for this version.
Is this dessert spicy?
Espelette is a mild pepper. It reads as warmth on the finish rather than heat on the tongue, and against 70 g of dark chocolate and 70 g of sugar it stays gentle.
How should I store the butter?
In the refrigerator, wrapped or in a sealed container. Take out only what you need and return the rest to the cold straight away.
Does Bordier butter need refrigeration?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Refrigerate it as soon as it arrives.
Can I make the batter further ahead than 30 minutes?
Bordier specifies 30 minutes and says to start at least an hour before serving. We have held the filled molds, covered, for several hours in the refrigerator with good results, adding a minute or two to the bake. That extension is ours, not Bordier's.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Terre Exotique
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.