For the truly difficult-to-buy-for soul on your gift list, I suggest The Ramequin. A person can never have too many ramequins. A ramequin, for those of you who can’t tell from the photo (although it seems obvious to me), is a small, single-serving-size baking dish, preferably straight-sided, like a souffle dish (for making, you know, tiny souffles).
Why I love ramequins: they automatically limit portion size. You get your own. You get to eat THE WHOLE THING. But you wouldn’t eat two, right? Even in our most secret, vulnerable, honest midnight forages we know not to eat two. Somehow, that would just be uncivilized. One is just right.
Besides, they’re just special. Everyone loves a small, individual-sized dish of whatever–witness the popularity of the personal pan pizza for the last umpteen years. Our inner three-year-old wants to selfishly hog it all for herself, and with a ramequin, she can.
Lots of things work perfectly in a ramequin: creme brulee, tiny fruit cobblers, crisps, pies, baked custards, souffles, mousses, puddings, those divine lava cakes with the molten chocolate center. I also use them as serving dishes–there’s no ambiguity about the size of the scoop (it’s easy enough to put a ramequin on the kitchen scale and weigh out the last of the ice cream so that both portions are EXACTLY EQUAL. Ask me how I know . . .).
I have three sizes–4, 6, and 8 ounces. Sets of 8 are best–that way the recipient can make enough chocolate souffles for eight people, and if there’s any justice in the world, you’ll be invited to dinner. What goes around comes around, you know?