Old Course executive chef Martin Hollis creates a chocolate fondant, the perfect gooey treat, to make at home
There seems to be some confusion about who invented chocolate fondant.
United States-based chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten claims to have invented molten chocolate cake in New York City in 1987, but the French chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres disputes this, arguing that such a dish already existed in France.
But whoever is responsible, we thank you for this gloriously gooey treat.
Like the best romantic entanglements, a good chocolate fondant is hot and intense with a meltingly soft centre. Here’s my recipe to try at home. You’ll need 520g dark couverture (ideally Guanaja-Valrhona) chocolate, 520g butter,
10 eggs, 4 egg yolks, 400g caster sugar, 270g plain flour, 60g cocoa powder, 16g baking powder.
Melt the chocolate and the butter together. Beat the eggs, egg yolks and the sugar together. Add this to the chocolate mixture. Sieve the flour cocoa powder and baking powder together twice until well mixed together. Gently fold the mixtures together. Line the moulds with either cocoa powder or grated chocolate and pipe in the mix.
Cook in a pre-heated oven 180C for 5-6 mins. Leave to cool for 3 mins before turning out on to a plate. Garnish with fresh raspberries and clotted cream.
The hardest part is waiting the 3 minutes for the dish to cool…. it’s too tempting to just dive in!
Chef’s tip: Garnishing can be as simple or as creative as you want to be – simply as above with raspberries and clotted cream, or decorate with spun sugar, nut brittle or popping candy.
This recipe can be prepared the day before and stored in the refrigerator until ready to cook, if you do this, remember that the mixture will not be at room temperature so extra cooking time will be required.
