2011 Cooking Club Week 16: Simple Chocolate Fondants

Mr Magnolia

This is a great dessert for a dinner party. They can be prepared, put in the ramekins and left in the fridge overnight so you're not caught making a complex desert while you're guests are unattended. They take about 12 minutes in the oven. Best to cook an extra one of you're cooking for a group incase they're under-done when you turn them out, you can discard the first and put them back in for a couple of minutes more.

The ramekins/moulds can be got in heatons or woodies for 1 or 2 euro each. Any excess mixture can be put into moulds or left in the container and refridgerated or frozen. This recipe makes 8 or 10 depending on the size of the mould.

Ingredients

Butter, for rubbing around the ramekins
Cocoa powder , for dusting
200g good-quality dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) broke into small pieces
200g butter, again small pieces
200g caster sugar
4 eggs and 4 yolks
200g plain flour

Method

1. Heavily rub the butter all over the inside of the mould. Add a good spoonful of cocoa powder in. Tip the mould so the powder completely coats the butter and rotate. Tap any excess cocoa into the next mould and repeat.



2. Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from the heat and stir until smooth.



3. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a figure 8 trail. The more volume, the more air you've gotten in and the better the end result.



4. Sift the flour into the eggs, then fold in gently.

5. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture and fold in until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined.



6. Evenly divide between the moulds leaving some room for them to rise. Chill for about 20 mins before baking.



7. Heat oven to 200C. Place the fondants on a baking tray, then cook for 12-14 mins (depending on the size of the mould) until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven and serve immediately, they'll continue to cook when out and you want the guuey centre so be relatively quick. My one in the photo is slightly over as I was faffing around with the camera.

8. Loosen the fondants by running a knife around the side. Tip each fondant gently upside-down onto a plate and dust lightly with cocoa. Serve with ice-cream, cream or whatever you fancy. No fruit coulis though. Ever!

Oafley Jones

That's odd myself and the girlfriend were just wondering what the new recipe would be and this appeared. Had them yesterday, they were really lovely.

Faith

Oh, AWESOME. I cannot wait to try these

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look delish!

Have you been in my kitchen again Mr Magnolia?....we have them ramekins too

Mr Magnolia

lol, handy for you Des. Think I picked them up in heatons last year...

They're tastey alright.

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we're making these now!!:D

halving the recipe, because there's only two of us, pics to follow.

neuro-praxis

Yum! Will be trying these in the near future. Thanks!

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Here they are, gone now, delicious. Thanks Mr M

John Mason

we had these again today, i think i am in love - they are flipping gorgeous

Mr Magnolia

Sweet. It's a slippery slope!

The Black Oil

There should have been a Cooking Club box on the religion part of the census form. With a number of recipes involving dark chocolate we're all being rather sinful. :pac:

Twee.

These look fantastic! Can't wait to try. Gotta get some ramekins.

Little Alex

Just had these now, Mr M. They were lovely and chocolatish!

I didn't have any fancy stuff, not even this coulis stuff that you think so highly of, so they were served up as is. :pac:

emeraldstar

^^ That + ice cream = Heaven

Curry Addict

this one im definitely going to make :pac:
nice recipe mr magnolia

BaZmO*

Scrumptious recipe. Made them last night and they were beautiful. Only made half the quantity in the OP's recipe and it made 5.So that was two last night, another two tonight, and another one tomorrow!

I love the way you can make them the night before, ideal if you're having a dinner party!

Little Alex

Looks great, BaZmO*. Well done!

We halved all the quantities and ended up with three ramekins and had the third one yesterday. The third one was gooier because it got one minute or so less in the oven: the line between that and overdone really is that fine!

_feedback_

Thanks OP, made these yesterday. They were really good!

pinkieschick

these look wonderful cant wait to try them:D

nice1franko

Bought some new ramekins for this and a kenwood chef mixer while I was at it. Cooking club is costing me a fortune!

toadfly

They look amazing, thanks OP.

reera82

Hi. I am just going to ask a very basic question - is that four eggs altogether or 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks? (therefore using 8 eggs altogether). Thanks.:)

BaZmO*

reera82 wrote: »

Hi. I am just going to ask a very basic question - is that four eggs altogether or 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks? (therefore using 8 eggs altogether). Thanks.:)

I had to do a double take when reading it first too!

I went with the 4 full eggs and also the yolks of 4 eggs.....so 8 in total

Mr Magnolia

Yes, 8 eggs total.

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make meringues out of the spare whites

Faith

Probably a stupid question, but how do you know if one is under-done?

Mr Magnolia

Faith wrote: »

Probably a stupid question, but how do you know if one is under-done?

It's about 12-14 minutes. When they rise keep an eye on them you're only a couple of minutes away at this stage. You'll notice the top starting to darken, once this happens they're done. Best to put a spare one in though, if you tip it out upside-down and it runs all over the plate you can put the rest back in for another minute or two.

Faith

Thanks Mr. M! Made these last night. I was so paranoid of undercooking or overcooking them! I timed them to cook for 12 minutes at 200C in a fan oven. I did faff around a bit taking them out of the molds, and they ended up being slightly overcooked. They tasted lovely, but I was disappointed that the inside wasn't gooey-er. I do have a spare one in the fridge so I'll try that one later on and hope I get it right this time .

The recipe was great though, thanks!

reera82

Thanks to BaZmO and Mr. Magnolia. I made these this evening and they were pure scoff. I only made two. Does anyone know how long the mix will hold?

BaZmO*

I made 5 and they lasted 3 days. 2 the first day, 2 the next and 1 on the final day, which makes them great for a dinner party.

aquascrotum

The gf made these for us last week. Superb! Two nights in a row was a bit much for the beltline though.

Jesus Wept

Do they reheat?

Mr Magnolia

They wouldn't reheat very well as a fondant but the mixture could be stored in the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer for a lot longer.

pinkieschick

Made these as i said i would for some family and friends they were wonderful thank you so much for sharing this delightful recipe:)

nc6000

Made these over the weekend and they were absolutely delicious. Even the uncooked mix is delicious. We have two left which will be going into the oven later on.

The Black Oil

2 ramekins for €4.50, is that alright or should we expect to pay a bit less? Pyrex versions.

BaZmO*

The Black Oil wrote: »

2 ramekins for €4.50, is that alright or should we expect to pay a bit less? Pyrex versions.

I bought some in Home Stores + More for cheap enough, can't remember the exact price but it certainly didn't break the bank.

pts

The Black Oil wrote: »

2 ramekins for €4.50, is that alright or should we expect to pay a bit less? Pyrex versions.

I have ~15 of the at home, the M&S dine for two offer often has deserts which come in small ramekins. They might be slightly too small if you want a big dessert, but they're perfect for condiments and other stuff.:)

phasers

The Black Oil wrote: »

2 ramekins for €4.50, is that alright or should we expect to pay a bit less? Pyrex versions.

I bought these a couple of weeks ago, 4 for €1.99 and they're brilliant.

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/8613444/Trail/searchtext%3ERAMEKIN.htm

glic83

OMG these look great cant wait to try these

nice1franko

I've made this loads of times now but I've only this scaldy image from my first attempt:



Definitely one of my fav cooking club recipes now though. It delivers so much for the effort and you can prepare it so far in advance too.

Night_Prowler

Long time listener first time caller!!

first attempt at a cooking club recipe and it was a big success - we halved the recipe and it just about filled 4 ramekins

Added a healthy dollop of ice cream on top to finish - Delish - thanks OP

glic83

im planning on making these for desert christmas day,made a test run tonight but didnt leave them in long enough they were way too gooey and heavy especially after dinner,ill make another trial run before the big day and maybe put slightly less mixture into the ramekins, but all in we both still loved them looking forward to the next batch

niamhocxox

phasers wrote: »

I bought these a couple of weeks ago, 4 for €1.99 and they're brilliant.

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/8613444/Trail/searchtext%3ERAMEKIN.htm

Did you mean these for €6.99? http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10152&catalogId=13352&langId=111&searchTerms=RAMEKINS&authToken=

Curry Addict

ive made these a few times, delicious, great recipe :pac:

SlimCi

OP thank you, great recipe. I used the 72% choc from Lidl but it nearly killed us after a big meal, the choc content was way too much. Would be great if anyone could recommend a good quality lower cocoa choc please. Mind you my son had two of them the following day lol and he had no problem eating them and didn't find them filling at all, so maybe we were just too full! Again thanks, a really easy and great recipe:D

These were great. Tried them last night. My attempt at getting one of them out of the ramekins lead to a bit of a crash:



So I gave up and served them in the ramekins. And luckily I had made an extra one, which was devoured:



Now all I need is to pick up an electric whisk, took bloody ages to hand whisk them!

Thanks OP.

confusticated

Made these a few weeks ago, had no ramekins (student house!) so I used little cups - the handles were actually pretty useful for turning them upside down without getting burnt. They were unreal OP, thanks so much!

i made these yesterday using lindt orange intense dark chocolate
so, orange chocolate fondants
very delicious, big hit, and i have been instructed to make more

Padraig Mor

Had these last night. 190 in a fan oven for 11 minutes - turned out absolutely spot on. Deliciously rich - and perhaps surprisingly unsweet. Easy to make too - although my poor arm was ready to fall off after all that whisking! Really need to get a mixer! And two more ready for tonight (half volumes of posted recipe)........