Warm Chocolate Fondant

Chocolate is my kind of happiness, don't hurt me if I am wrong but let's be honest isn't it every woman's happiness? Even if most of the time they don't want to admit it. In these freezing winter months approaching what better way to get through the winter blues than to wrap yourself in a few thousand blankets put on a classic movie and devour a beautifully rich chocolate fondant accompanied by a citrus and mint salad, creme fraiche ice cream and a pistachio and orange tuile.

For those of you who don't know, a chocolate fondant is that incredibly rich dessert that when you break into it with your spoon a fluid hot ganache flows from the centre. This is one of my many favourite desserts, however be warned it is very rich so if you aren't a chocolate lover make sure to share it with someone who is, it will make their day. Trust me.

Enough of my talking, I know you are all only here for the food, let's be honest most of my friends including my boyfriend are only with me because I make desserts on a daily basis. Just kidding. But not really.

So here is the recipe, on a side note this recipe is written for those who understand how to make a basic ganache or who know basic methods of baking. If you don't understand some of the methods either google it or feel free to Facebook me.

Warm Chocolate Fondant with Citrus Mint Salad, Mascarpone Ice Cream and Orange Pistachio Tuile

Ganache

   75g               Couverture 70%

   40g               Water

   70g               Cream

Warm Chocolate Fondant (5 aluminium moulds)

  110g              Couverture 70%

    50g              Butter

      2                Egg yolks

   40g               Almonds ground

   20g               Rice flour

      2                Egg whites

    90g              Vanilla sugar

                         

1.     Prepare ganache and leave to crystallise

2.     Pipe (grease prove paper) into 4cm wide or 20g heavy discs

3.     Freeze until further use

4.     Grease 5 aluminium moulds with butter

5.     Line the bottoms with a disc of grease prove paper

6.     Over a bain-marie, melt together couverture and butter

7.     Stir in egg yolks, ground almonds and rice flour

8.     Whip egg whites with half of sugar to a stable meringue

9.     Continue adding leftover sugar until meringue is stiff

10.  Fold meringue into chocolate mixture

11.  Place mixture  into a piping bag and half fill moulds (40g)

12.  Gently press one disc of ganache into centre of mould

13.  Finish piping fondant mixture until ¾ filled (30g)

14.  Place into freezer for a minimum of 3 hours

15.  Bake for 15-20 min at 180˚C, closed vent

16.  The cakes are ready when firm to touch

17.  Leave to rest for a 1 minute in the moulds

18.  Un-mould and serve immediately

Citrus Salad

   2                    Mandarins

 ½                     Grapefruit

   2                    Orange

  ¼                    Vanilla pod

   4                    Mint leaves, finely chopped

 50 g                 Sugar

1. Peel and segment fruit, cut into smaller pieces and place into a bowl
2. Add vanilla pod, mint leaves and sugar, and mix thoroughly
3. Cover and leave to infuse for one hour
4. Strain syrup into sauce pan and reduce  the syrup by one third

Mascarpone Ice cream (or Crème Fraiche)

300ml               Milk

  60g                Vanilla sugar

  60g                Sugar

  80g                Egg yolks

280g                Mascarpone (or crème fraiche)

1. Combine the milk and the vanilla sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil
2. Place egg yolks and rest of sugar in a bowl and whisk until blended
3. Continue as for anglaise and cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon
4. Place the Mascarpone (or crème fraiche) in a bowl
5. Strain the warm anglaise over it and whisk to incorporate
6. Refrigerate for 4 hours
7. Churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions or place into beaker for Pacojet

Orange Pistachio Tuiles

  70g                Pistachios

  70g                Sugar

  55g                Butter

    ½                 Orange zest

  70g                Glucose

  20g                Flour plain

Method:

1. Grind the nuts to a coarse meal
2. Cream butter, sugar and orange zest until light
3. Gradually add the glucose, mixing until smooth and well blended
4. Fold in flour and nuts
5. Roll into logs of 1cm diameter and freeze
6. Cut into thin slices and place onto a silpat (leave space for expansion)
7. Bake at 180ºC until even light in colour (5min.)
8. Shape into tuile shape

That's all from me this week and good luck for all the university students going into exams!

B. 

I'm Back!

After reading through my old blog entries it seems that I always start with saying Hello all! I'm not very original with my startings and I'm watching the Bachelor at the same time as writing this so I will carry on with that.

So hello all!

I know I have been terribly lazy and haven't been updating this blog in a very long time, but to start off with my life has become beautifully hectic this year. It's honestly been a crazy few months. I've moved into a new flat with my crazy flatmates Laura, Sam, Jojo and Kristiana (Follow our antics on Instagram @the_phat_flat). They are full of surprises and if you can imagine 5 girls being squeezed into a very small 4 bedroom house in the heart of Auckland city, well you can only imagine how crazy and often strange things can get. I, as of recently, also started my new job at Sky city Pastry kitchen, it is an amazing opportunity for me to be exposed to the exciting and often challenging industry of Patisserie. Although it is very tiring I am loving it so far and I have learnt an incredible amount about this crazy world I'm heading into.


I should probably update you on everything that you would have missed from me being lazy last year. Where do I even start? Well I ended the year with receiving a scholarship from Southern Hospitality that put funds towards my studies for this year, I completed last year with straight A+'s which I am incredibly happy about, I have been interviewed for a bakery magazine called "Slice" which will have an article about my studies, work and my passion for patisserie in the next issue, and my class and I held our End of Year Buffet for our family and friends (which they seemed to enjoy mainly because of the free food).

I honestly came into this year scared out of my wits of what I was getting myself into for my second and final year of Patisserie, I thought I was going to fail miserably and the world was going to end. Thankfully though, as usual, I overreacted. This year has been filled with some challenges but overall it has been exciting, fun and often crazy. My days are long and tiring but by the end of it I am so proud of all that I have accomplished and how far I have come from the beginning of last year.

The paper we are currently doing is sugar and chocolate confectionary, and yes all day we learn how to make lollies and all sorts of chocolatey goodness. It's a hard life I live, I know. I honestly get way too excited learning how to pull sugar to create hard candy or learning how to properly temper chocolate (which I have failed at miserably a few times, with the chocolate mostly ending on myself or the floor).

For those of you who want to know what I do at work, no I am not the dishwasher (we have someone that does our dishes for us, if I only I could hire someone to do that at the flat) I am a 'Commis Chef' in the Pastry Kitchen at Skycity. Sky City Pastry kitchen supplies desserts to places such as 'Rebo', 'The Grand Hotel', 'SkyCity Hotel' and the 'Orbit' which are all part of the SkyCity restaurants. So what I do is assist the Pastry Chef's with jobs such as filling macaroons, making pecan tarts, rolling sweet paste, and on occasion finishing desserts (and no that does not mean eating them but decorating them), plus many other things that you probably don't really care about.

So that is my update, again sorry for the radio silence over the last few months. I have no excuse apart from watching way too many TV shows and movies.

For my next post I promise to put a recipe up as well so you can see the sort of things I am learning this year, they are all very exciting and fun to make (well I think they are) so I will try to choose just one!

Have a great week,

B.