Chokolate fondant - hot muffins with chocolate cream in the middle
Ingredients
poundcake parts (makes 9 servings)
- 200 grams (7 ounces) plain white flour
- 200 grams (7 ounces) sugar
- 200 grams (7 ounces) butter
- 4 eggs, about 200 grams (7 ounces)
what makes it different than a poundcake
- 200 grams (7 ounces) chokolate, 70%
- 4 egg yokes
to butter the mould
- a bit of soft butter
- a bit of cocoa powder
Directions
Mix the batter
Melt the butter in a small pan.
Melt the chocolate by chopping it finely and mixing it into the melted butter.
Mix sugar, eggs and egg yolks in a big bowl. Stir well until the all the sugar is disolved.
Mix the chokolate mixture well into the egg mixture a little at the time.
Finally mix in the flour until the batter is nice and creamy.
Molding it
Butter up the moulds and sprinkle them with cocoa.
Pour the batter into the moulds.
Chill the dough in the refrigirator. At least for ½ hour. Preferably until the next day.
It is important that the dough is chilled as it reduces the risk of it being baked through. Which would prevent it from staying creamy in the middle.
At this time you can also freeze the batter for up to a month and then bake it from frozen.
When they are so cold that they are firm to the touch it is time to bake them at 200 degres C (390 F) in a convection oven. For 12-15 minutes. 5 minutes more if they are frozen.
Notes
You can mix different tastes into the batter. Like orange zest, Grand Marnier orange liqueur etc.
There is no baking powder in the recipe, and you should not use self raising flour. It would ruin the chocolate cream. But it also means that they don't raise much. You need about 1½ dl (a bit more than ½ a cup) of room in your mould.
It only needs to be baked until there is enough crust on it to hold it together. The first few times you bake it, it can be hard to judge.
The baking time is very dependent of the shape and the size of the baking mould. The art of this cake is to bake them correctly. Mixing it the batter is simple enough.
Well that is, if you can get the cake out of the mould without breaking.
If you want to make sure that they don't stick you can also cool down the moulds and then brush melted butter on the sides. You can repeat that a few times. Then cover it with cocoa powder.
Personally I use silicone moulds, so I don't really butter it up. I just use a meat pin to run around the edge of the cake when it is done. That looses them nicely.
The fondant should be served while "hottish". Vanilla ice, orange sherbet, preserved berries or caramel sauce are all good.
