Recipes

Chocolate Fondant

On 1 February, 2024
By Pierre-Antoine
0 Comments

Just a few days ago, in Masterchef The Professionals, the Red Team served a classic for dessert, a Dark Chocolate Fondant. This recipe, like so many fondant recipes, is based on the under-cooking of the dough, which then oozes out when cut open. You can find their recipe here. I find this type of fondant to be quite heavy and hard to digest (the raw flour of the uncooked dough..). I discovered an awesome way to overcome this problem, while I was working at Le Relais D’Auteuil, in Paris in 2000. We were serving mini Chocolate French Donuts. I would simply dip a frozen cube of Ganache in a chocolate donut batter, then deep fry it. I have adapted this method for my Fondant Recipe. Instead of under cooking the fondant, you insert in its middle a frozen cube of ganache, which you can flavor to your liking. By the time the fondant is fully cooked, the ganache is defrosted and warm, and will ooze out like lava… Also, I like to prepare this recipe a day ahead at least, and keep it in the fridge for up to a week…It is very convenient as you can put the mixture in the moulds (or rings), and keep it ready to go in the oven. Then you just have to slide the ganache in the middle, and in the oven it goes. With Valentine just around the corner, you have a winner here…..!

The recipe below is the one I serve quite often to my customers when they are after a chocolate indulgence.. I love the combination of Crystallized Ginger, Chocolate and Chili. I also flavor with Basil, Pomegranate Molasses,…

Ingredients (makes about 8-10 fondants depending on mould)

For the Fondant:

175 g Dark Chocolate Couverture (60% or 70% Cocoa, Lindt or Callebault found in Deli)
125 g Salt Reduced Butter
4 Organic or Free Range Eggs
1 Yolk
85 g Caster Sugar
65 g Plain Flour

For the Ganache:

50 g Pure Cream
100 g Dark Chocolate Couverture
30 g Crystallized Ginger

Method

For the Ganache :

Chop the ginger very finely, put in microwavable container with the cream, bring to the boil in microwave.
Add chocolate and stir till melted and combined.
Set aside in freezer, it should be about 1 cm thick in your container.
When frozen, just take out of the container, cut into 1x1x2 cm rectangle, put back in freezer.

For the Fondant:

Melt butter in the microwave, then add the chocolate and stir, and reheat if needed till completely melted and combined. Set aside.
With soft butter brush well 4 metal rings (you can also use metal dariole moulds as seen on Masterchef , or you can buy these rings at Executive Chef in South Bank) then dress with baking paper.
Whisk eggs, yolk and sugar till thick and creamy (culinary term : “whisk to ribbon”). Use a mixer if possible…
Add chocolate/butter mix,fold till combined.
Fold flour in. Pour mixture in moulds, till 2 cm off the top. Rest in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Place a rectangle of ganache vertically in the middle of the fondant. Make sure you reach the center.
Cook in a 180°C oven for about 10-12 minutes.