Chocolate fondant

Easy to make
Always do a trial run
Better under-baked than over-baked
Don’t forget the finishing touches

The trick when making chocolate fondant is lots of all the things that signal excess – exclusive chocolate, loads of butter and plenty of eggs. And then a little flour and sugar to bind it all together. Fondant means “melting” in French, the perfect description of the gooey inside. But the crisp outside – and the extras – are just as important.

Choosing the chocolate for fondant

Chocolate fondant is like dark chocolate conveyed through the medium of heat and creaminess. So be fussy when choosing your chocolate. Ignore the baking shelf and hunt among the high-quality blocks of chocolate instead, where the prices start to get higher and the lists of ingredients shorter.

Everyone likes chocolate.
– Kin Tsui, 39Wäst

Good with chocolate fondant

While the fondant is the star, what you serve with it defines the experience. Cold vanilla ice cream with hot fondant is a classic combination that’s hard to beat, but other flavors of ice cream work well too, such as mango, raspberry, passion fruit or mint. Other excellent accompaniments include fresh raspberries, a citrus salad (maybe with a little licorice powder?) or thinly sliced star fruit and strawberries.

A simple basic principle is to match the dark, warm, full-bodied sweet taste of chocolate with accompaniments that are the opposite – cold, acidic, light, fresh, etc.

Always do a trial run

Well-baked fondant should be runny inside. If it spends too long in the oven and the middle starts to solidify, the whole point is lost. Because every oven is different, it’s worth doing a trial run first. You don’t want to serve up a plateful of unusually hard muffins.

Preparing chocolate fondant ahead of time

Because chocolate fondant doesn’t contain baking powder, it can be prepared the day before if necessary. Keep the filled molds in the fridge until you cook them.

If you’re having friends round, plan ahead. No-one wants to be sweating in the kitchen while their guests are waiting.
– Christophe Buchet, Bleck

Salted or unsalted butter

Butter doesn’t only add delicious fat to the recipe, it also brings saltiness. Pastry chefs tend to use unsalted butter so that they can decide for themselves exactly how salty they want the result to be. A pinch of salt cuts through the sweetness.

The right container for your fondant

Chocolate fondant is always baked in individual molds or ramekins. They are usually ceramic but if you’re making a large number at once, you can use disposable ones. Because the disposable versions are thinner, and the fondant will cook more quickly, it’s extra important to do a trial run with just one fondant first to make sure the inside stays runny.

Ceramic ramekins are preferable. You can grease, grease again and then add sugar, or even put strips of greaseproof paper inside as a pain-free way of quickly getting the fondants out once they’re cooked. Some people turn the ramekins upside down and turn the masterpiece out onto the plate. Others serve the fondants in their little ceramic pots. It’s less messy, but you miss the effect of the glorious chocolate sauce running out of the fondant when the spoon first plunges in.

Serving chocolate fondant

When the chocolate fondant is on the plate, sprinkle some cocoa powder on top of the warm chocolate dessert. Put the cocoa powder in a tea strainer and sift it carefully over each plate. It’s a showy move and the cocoa highlights the aroma of chocolate.