Pumpkin Butterscotch Molten Lava Cakes

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Pumpkin Butterscotch Molten Lava Cakes

Serves 4 adjust servings

You know those chocolate lava cakes that are always on the dessert menu? I made one that has PUMPKIN and BUTTERSCOTCH flavors! It is soft, tender, and guaranteed to spill delicious cake lava alll over your plate. Fall baking is the best right??

Ingredients

1 cup butterscotch chips
11 tablespoons butter
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour, spooned and leveled
4 mounded teaspoons graham cracker crumbs
extra butterscotch chips, to garnish
vanilla ice cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, add butterscotch chips and butter. Melt in the microwave for 1 minute. The butter should be mostly melted. Stir it together, and microwave 20-30 more seconds, stirring until the butterscotch chips are smooth. The butter will not fully incorporate into the butterscotch; it will look separated. That's okay. Just makes sure you get all the lumps of butterscotch smoothed out and you're golden. (see photo)
In another bowl, beat egg yolks with pumpkin. Stir in the brown sugar.
Add the butterscotch to the pumpkin mixture, as well as the flour. Whisk it all together until all the lumps are gone.
Use butter or nonstick spray to generously grease 4 custard cups (Ramekins will work great too. Wish I had these cute ones from the Pioneer Woman!) Whichever you use, make sure they are 6 or 7 ounce capacity.
Add a mounded teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs to each custard cup. Shake it around to coat the bottom of the cup well, then turn it on it's side over the sink and tap it, turning the cup, until all the sides are coated with a very generous layer of graham cracker crumbs. (You could absolutely crush your own graham crackers, you will probably need 1 or 2 full sheets. I just bought the pre-made ones at the store.)
Place each custard cup on a rimmed baking sheet.
Divide the batter evenly between the 4 custard cups. Smooth the tops with a spoon.
Bake at 425 for about 23 minutes. This will vary of course. You want to top to be set and not shiny. It's okay if there is a little wiggle when you shake the pan, but it shouldn't look like liquid. The edges should be brown. You can see in one of the pictures that after it has cooled down, there is a beautiful dark spot in the middle, just like every decent cookie. Don't bother testing with a toothpick. There's lava in there!!
Let the cakes set up in their ramekins for at least 3-5 minutes. Then use a butter knife to loosen the edges of each cake. Place a small serving plate upside down on top of the custard cup and flip it over.
Serve each cake with a sprinkle of butterscotch chips, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and My Favorite Caramel Sauce*.

by The Food Charlatan

Recipe Notes

*If you don't feel like making homemade caramel sauce, buy the highest quality caramel sauce you can find at the store, then stir in a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. That's what I did for the caramel you see in these photos. Mm-mmm.

This recipe is adapted (to include pumpkin) from this Molten Butterscotch Cake recipe, from Betty Crocker. I tried it last week with Kraft caramel bits instead of butterscotch, which you could also try. It was really good, though it didn't rise as much.