Warm Chocolate Cakes With Coffee Cream

Preparation

1. Step 1

   To make the coffee cream, in a large saucepan, combine the coffee and milk and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat, add the vanilla, cover and cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the yolks and sugar until thick and light-colored. Whisk in the flour. Remove and discard the vanilla bean and very slowly whisk the hot milk and coffee into the flour mixture.

2. Step 2

   Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

3. Step 3

   To make the cakes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter and flour 10 ⅔-cup ceramic ramekins.

4. Step 4

   In the top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, combine the chocolate, butter and rum and cook, stirring, until the chocolate melts and the mixture is completely smooth. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and egg yolks and whisk until thick and light-colored. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Fold in the chocolate and then the flour. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins, filling each ⅔ full. Bake until the cakes have risen and the tops just begin to crack, about 10 to 15 minutes. (The centers will still be slightly gooey.)

5. Step 5

   Remove the cakes from the oven and immediately unmold them by inverting them onto dessert plates (run a thin-bladed knife around the edges of the ramekins if they stick). If necessary, rewarm cream in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. Sprinkle the cakes with powdered sugar and spoon coffee cream around them.