This taste treat belongs in the “food is love” category. It has nothing to do with the Atkins Diet or nutrition and everything to do with comfort food. I tend to make it late in the evening, when most normal people are done eating for the day. It is indulgent; it is decadent in a down home way; it is the perfect answer to a hormonal chocolate craving. It’s also easy to make. All measurements are inexact.

You’ll need

• Bisquick ( I gotta say, if you follow this link you’ll see that this product is rather looked down upon on E2. Not as good as “from scratch” and all that. Purists who want to make a gooey chocolate treat from scratch are encouraged; but when you're craving something hot and doughy and chocolatey NOW, this will do the trick.)
• skim milk or whatever kind of milk you prefer.
• hot chocolate mix
• chocolate chips, or broken up bits of a Hershey’s Special Dark bar, or any other chocolate you happen to have on hand.
• an oven and a cupcake tin, and butter or some sort of non-stick spray for greasing the tin

Heat oven to 450.

The bisquick ratio of powder to milk is 3:1. Two cupfuls of dry mix should make plenty for two bingeing adults, which means you'll be using about 2/3 cup of milk. Dump the dry mix in a bowl and add enough hot cocoa mix to make it turn light brown, then add the milk. Stir in a handful or so of chocolate chips. This is actually one of those rare recipes where the finished product tastes better than the batter, so hold off on that urge to eat big spoonfuls of batter. We'll be there soon enough.

Grease/butter/spray the cupcake tin and fill each mold* about halfway with batter. Pop the tin in the oven.

Okay, that thing I said about the finished product being better than the batter? Well, gooey chocolate yum balls are officially ready to eat as soon as the chocolate chips begin to melt. A few minutes after you put the tin in the oven, check the progress of your gooey treats by ladling out a big spoonful. If the dough is hot or even just warm, and the chips have started to become molten, then it's ready to eat!

At this point, you and your loved ones can gather around the stove, each with her own spoon, and eat directly from the cupcake tin, or you, the host(ess), can serve the gooey chocolate yum balls in bowls.

I couldn't tell you how to go about storing this for later--we always eat it all, right away. If you allow the batter to keep baking, it turns into slightly dry chocolate, chocolate-chip muffins, and not very good ones at that. It is a far, far better thing to eat the gooey mess right away, while it is still hot and moist and scrumptious. Don't say I didn't warn you.

*What do you call the individual, cupcake sized depressions in the cupcake tin?

NinjaPenguin asks, "So the end product is liquid and not really a "ball" then?"

Good question.The end product is like a doughy pudding...not liquid, but definitely something to eat with a spoon. I call them balls because the muffin tin gives them structure, but the state of the dessert can be a matter of personal choice.The longer you cook it, the more solid it becomes.

The individual, cupcake sized depressions in the cupcake tin are called wells by signmoan, cupholes by oakling, and cups by jessicapierceand Cletus the Foetus. Thanks, guys!