Chocolate fondant: secrets to making the most delicious French dessert

I once thought that making chocolate fondant required certain skills in working with dough and chocolate, and a novice cook would definitely not be able to handle this dish. So, it’s not even worth taking on the task of making such a French dessert, which is served in fine restaurants. But I decided to try it anyway. And, you know, I succeeded! Here are a few secrets.

Chocolate fondant is a rather “young” work of confectionery craftsmanship, which looks like a small, fluffy, upside-down cupcake with a crust, the middle of which, when broken, flows out in a chocolate avalanche. Literally, it sounds like this: “fondant au chocolat”, that is, “melting chocolate”. And despite the fact that it is customary to consider it a French dessert, according to one version it was created far outside of France, namely in the USA. Why then was fondant called French? Here are several versions of the history of the creation of chocolate fondant.

According to the first version, the dessert was created in 1987 by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a chef at the French-style New York restaurant Lafayette. It is believed that he came up with this delicacy by accident. It seems that the chef was just in a hurry and took the chocolate muffins out of the oven too early. But after tasting these cupcakes, Jean-Georges decided to give the new delicacy a chance and only slightly modified the recipe, calling it chocolate fondant.

Another version attributes the creation of this chocolate masterpiece to the famous French chef Michel Brass, whose Michelin-starred restaurant is located in the small village of Laguiole in France. Rumor has it that he was so in love with hot chocolate and brownies that he decided to combine them into one chocolate fondant recipe. Thanks to this, in 1981, an incredible version of the warm French dessert was released, from the middle of which, when broken, chocolate ganache flowed out.

How to make chocolate fondant yourself?

Many people wonder how long it takes to make chocolate fondant. The answer lies in the recipe you choose. After all, there are two chocolate fondant recipes that are called classic.

The simple recipe for these cakes does not require much preparation time – about 30 minutes, not including the 2-hour cooling in the refrigerator of the finished dough (its recipe is given below). Complicated with the addition of frozen ganache – chocolate cream based on cocoa and cream – will take more time. But, as you know, every master strives to add his own touch, so do not be surprised if on the Internet you find other proportions or variations of recipes for the French dessert. So let's move on to cooking according to the recipe that I liked the most.

Ingredients for chocolate fondant:

• 2 bars of dark chocolate, at least 70% without additives (approximately 170-180 g), for example, such as Millennium Favorite Brut black 74% ;
• 200 g of butter;
• 2/3 cup sugar;
• 5 medium-sized eggs at room temperature;
• 1/2 cup sifted flour;
• 2.5 tablespoons "CHOCOLATIER" natural dark cocoa powder ;
• a little salt

How to make chocolate fondant? Step-by-step instructions

1. Cut off 180g of butter and chop it (the remaining butter will be used to grease the molds). Add the chopped chocolate to the butter.
2. Mix the chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt on a double boiler until smooth, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula. If you don't do this, the chocolate may curdle into unsightly flakes under the influence of high temperatures and butter. Set the finished chocolate mixture aside to cool.
3. In a separate deep bowl, beat the eggs with sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns white.
4. Gently add the cold chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs and mix.
5. Sift the flour and add it to the chocolate-egg mixture along with the salt, stirring gently with a spatula until smooth so that there are no lumps. Cover the finished dough with cling film and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.
6. Grease the muffin tins with butter and sprinkle the greased walls with dark cocoa powder.
7. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Pour the batter into the prepared molds 2/3 full and place them in the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes in convection mode. By the way, the baking time for chocolate fondants depends on the oven itself and the size of the molds in which the desserts are baked.
8. The finished chocolate fondants should be slightly undercooked, but still have crispy walls. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for just 1 minute, no more, because then the effect of the soft center oozing out like lava when breaking the cakes will be lost. While the desserts are still warm, carefully turn them onto plates.

Our advice! It is better to refrigerate the chocolate fondant dough for more than 2 hours before baking. You can even do it overnight. And if you pour the finished dough into silicone molds and freeze it, you will always have an exquisite treat ready for unexpected guests, which you will have time to prepare in just 18-20 minutes - this is exactly how much time it takes to bake the frozen version.

How to eat chocolate fondant correctly?

Chocolate fondant is served warm and always with a scoop of white vanilla ice cream to feel the full flavor of the hot chocolate inside the cake. But that's not all: in fine restaurants, this French dessert is lightly salted and decorated with a sprig of mint.

So try creating your own chocolate masterpieces and you will definitely succeed!