Chocolate Fondant
Chocolate fondants are relatively straight forward; in terms of technical ability you get a lot of bang for your buck; whether you see it as an undercooked cake or a baked mousse the only thing you really have to be mindful of is the cooking time, and the only sure fire way to get that right is a trial run. Not exactly a hardship.
There are hundreds of recipe variations on the web and every chef with a cook book has their own version too, but they’re mostly all a variation on a theme; melted butter and chocolate are folded in with eggs and sugar and a smattering of flour.
The recipe below will fill five bog-standard ramekins – that means four for serving and an extra one with which to practice. Because the aim here is to serve the fondants with an oozing centre, a spell in the fridge to chill through will ensure the middles take longer to heat through than the outsides, which also makes them a perfect dessert for preparing ahead of time (although you can in theory prepare and cook the fondants entirely in advance, their centres won’t ooze so much on reheating and it becomes more of a damp cake experience).
If you are at all panicked about turning the fondants out of their ramekins for serving, then serve them in their pots…unless of course you’re auditioning for MasterChef in which case you’re unlikely to make it through to the next round. However, turfing a fondant out of its ramekin isn’t as tricky as you might imagine, and you have got a spare one to practice with. Just be sure to butter the ramekins thoroughly; do it twice if it makes you feel happier, just give them a quick chill in the fridge to set the butter between coats.
Ingredients
(makes five x 140ml ramekins)
50g of butter, melted for greasing
Cocoa powder for dusting
125g dark chocolate
125g butter
100g caster sugar
20g plain flour
2 x whole eggs (large)
2 x yolks (large)
Brush the insides of the ramekins with melted butter (using upward strokes will make turning the fondants out of the ramekins easier), chill in the fridge until set and then repeat, this time dusting them with cocoa powder.
Melt the butter together with the chocolate in a large glass bowl, sit it over a pan filled with an inch of water, on a low heat.
Remove the bowl from the heat and let the chocolate cool for 10 mins.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until increased in volume; mousse-like and billowy, not quite soft peaks.
Dust over the flour through a sieve onto the eggs, add the melted chocolate and fold the three things together. Divide amongst the ramekins and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 220⁰C.
Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake in the centre of the oven for 11 minutes*. (They will rise and form a crust, which will sink as they cool.)
Remove the fondants from the oven and let them rest for a minute before serving. To remove the fondants from the ramekins, run a knife gently around the tops and tip the fondant carefully into a cupped hand.
*cooking times will vary depending on fridge temperatures, oven temperatures, fan, gas etc, but will rarely need more than an extra minute or two. Under done is better than over done in this case.