Chocolate Fondants - The good, the bad and the UGLY!!

After being told that chocolate fondants are so easy, and yadda yadda yadda, I decided to find a recipe online and give them a go.

On Saturday night, my mum and dad were coming over for dinner. I thought they'd be the perfect guinea pigs to try these out on. Dinner was Vegetarian Thai Green Curry (for mum, Boone and I), and coconut prawns (for Dad and Boone).

I found this recipe by Gordon Ramsay, which had fabulous reviews, and decided to give it a go.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8168/chocolate-fondant

However, I am known for having the inability to follow recipes and since my printer was not working, I just took down the ingredients and trusted myself to remember the method. (I have an almost 7 month old baby, I remember NOTHING!!!)

Soo here is what I ended up doing.

The recipe calls for 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks. I hate separating eggs, and wastage. So if I am not going to be making something else with the whites, then I always try to use recipes that call for full eggs. So instead of using 4 eggs and 4 yolks, I just put in 6 whole eggs ;)
I also had no dark chocolate, so I used milk chocolate, and added two tablespoons of my homemade vanilla extract which is made with vanilla beans and vodka. This made the fondants quite boozy!!! HIC!!!

Anyway, here is the recipe I ended up using with all my variations.

Ingredients

50g melted butter for brushing dariole molds
organic cocoa powder for dusting dariole molds
200g milk chocolate
200g organic butter
200g brown sugar
6 eggs
200g plain flour

1. Brush dariole molds with melted butter, and place upside down on a plate. My mix made 7 fondants. Place plate in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Take the dariole molds out, then brush with the remainder of the butter, place back in the freezer for a few minutes, then dust with cocoa, ensuring you cover all the sides and bottom of the ramekin. Tap out any excess cocoa.
2. Place butter, sugar and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, and heat for two minutes on medium. (If you put it on high, you could burn your chocolate). Stir butter/chocolate/sugar mix, and heat for another minute, until mixture is all melted. Keep heating in one minute increments. Once it is all melted and combined, set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time to the chocolate mixture, until thoroughly combined.
4. Sift flower into wet mix, and mix completely.
5. Spoon mix evenly into your dariole molds.
6. Place dariole molds on a plate, cover with glad (saran) wrap and freeze.
7. When you're ready to cook these, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius in a fan forced oven. 
8. Bake for 15 minutes, then take out of the oven, and allow them to sit/cool for a further 10 minutes. (The recommended minute (given by the original recipe) meant

   

   THE UGLY

   that I ended up with some disasters, and only the very last fondant that I unmoulded, came out perfectly. This meant that because I served myself last, I ended up with the perfect fondant, and my guests, had puddles of muck like the one below, and I got comments that I was keeping the best for myself (LOL). I have since made a few more fondants, and found that the 10 minute wait time, is perfect, as they all come out easily, without breaking, but you have to be very gentle all the same.
   
   
   Run a knife around the edge of the ramekin to ensure the fondant is not going to get stuck. Turn over onto a plate, and serve with creme fraiche/yogurt/cream/icecream.

So the verdict?? well they are super easy, just gotta know what you're doing!!! According to the recipe by Gordon Ramsey, these can be frozen for up to a month. Makes desserts at dinner parties sooooo much easier :)