The bain of the master chef bakers, and something i always avoid making, chocolate fondants must be one of the trickiest things ever to make! However last weekend my lovely friend Dietje came over from Amsterdam and while we were chit chatting about various cookbooks and recipes she happened to mention that she had this great recipe for a chocolate cake with a liquid middle. I said that i never made them because they always either had more egg yolks than whites (something i find irritating in recipes!) or involved plopping something like a frozen blob of chocolate ganache in (too much of a faff!) Dietje said " no no no these are so easy", so we gave them a whirl and she was right . so i am sharing the recipe here with you!
the slight problem i had was that they were eaten rather too quickly so i haven't got a very good photo!
RECIPE
200g good quality dark chocolate
25g soft butter
100g soft brown sugar
3 large eggs
25g flour
pinch of seasalt
6 ramekins or dariole moulds
METHOD
melt the chocolate
in a separate bowl beat the sugar and butter till light and fluffy adding a pinch of seasalt, add the eggs one by one and beat in between, fold in the flour.
allow the chocolate to cool a little and then fold in to the eggy mix with a spatula (a potlicker is what its called in Dutch - made me laugh!)
divide into the ramekins or darioles that you have oiled or buttered .
NOW YOU CAN EITHER REFRIGERATE TILL YOU NEED IT (I SUCCESSFULLY COOKED 2 SPARES 3 DAYS LATER!!) or you can cook straight away.
put the pots on a baking sheet in an oven PREHEATED to 200 degrees c
bake FOR EXACTLY 8MINS dont be tempted to leave them in longer or they will set like a cake, it looks like the middle is not cooked but i promise you it will be ok!
after 8mins take them out of the oven and loosen them with a flat knife and turn on to a plate.
serve with berries and a dollop of creme fraiche.