Chocolate Fondant

Last week was Valentine's day and I wanted to bake something new for once. Now to be honest, I am a huge fan of molten chocolate cake (aka fondant au chocolat) and I am definite that this dessert contains ample amounts of calories, saturated fats, sugar, you name it!

According to the Calories Lab, one molten chocolate with vanilla ice cream at Chili's restaurant is 1270 calories! That's approximately the entire caloric intake I can have per day! I have never actually ordered it, it's just too much of a burden to burn all this!

Therefore, I decided to make my own - at least I would know what raw ingredients went into it. As a first attempt, I did not modify the butter, I wanted mine exactly the same but I wanted to control what went into it (kind of a cleaner home-made version).

Now I had to look for a really good recipe, Lindt recipe it is!

This recipe actually serves 8, but my ramekins are considered bigger than usual, so it served me 4.

Molten Chocolate Ingredients

• 260 grams of 70% dark chocolate (you can go for Lindt, Poulain, Hershey's, etc.) But make sure to get the extra dark one - even if you're not a fan of dark chocolate, it sure deserves it!
• 70 grams of margarine or unsalted butter
• 50 g of castor or powdered sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 30 grams of plain flour

Method of preparation:
To be honest, I'm not a regular cook - so I really wanted a simple recipe. This Lindt recipe was it!

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C

2. Slightly butter the ramekins to prevent fondant from sticking

 

3. Use the bain marie (water bath) method to melt together the butter and the chocolate

4. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt thoroughly, until the yellow color looks pale

Exactly how they'll look when done!

5. Let someone help you on this one: fold in the chocolate & butter slowly into the pale yellow mixture - someone will be folding them together and the other will be mixing thoroughly

6. Sift in the flour and gently fold in until all ingredients are combined

7. Divide mixture into the ramekins and place in the preheated oven

8. Cook for 7-9 minutes. The cake with start to pull away slightly from the edge and feel dry on top but remain molten in the center - yum!

Serving this deliciousness!

Allow the hot ramekins to to sit just for 30 seconds, place a plate on top of it and then turn out. I wasn't expecting that it will come perfect, but to my surprise, it did!

I served the molten chocolate with London Dairy Lite vanilla ice cream which is 79 calories per serving. And it was delicious! I must admit, this is not the healthiest recipe for chocolate fondant! This recipe, that gave me 4 ramekins, yielded 600 calories per one molten chocolate! Now the recipe was intended to make 8 servings, according to the Lindt website, so sharing it was a must. I know, Joey doesn't share food, but my ramekins were huge giving 679 calories (fondant + ice cream) to it had to be shared to give you 340 calories. Always, always, moderation is the key.

*Now after having half of this, make sure not have this often! Bon appetite!