This is not a coulant!
Revenge is a dish best served hot… I told that I’d be back…
dark chocolate “coulant”
Serves 10:
6 eggs
160 g icing sugar
225 g softened butter
40 g cornstarch
60 g wheat flour
225 g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
Grease and flour 10 small round pans (6 cms diameter).
Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler.
Beat the butter until creamy.
Add the sugar and mix until smooth.
Add the eggs while mixing.
Fold in the flour and the cornstarch and mix.
Pour the chocolate and combine well.
Pour the batter into the pans (about 100g each).
Freeze overnight.
Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
Bake the cakes for 20 minutes directly from the freezer.
Unmold and serve immediatly.
Serve with an ice cream quenelle.
Note: varying the size of the pans and batter quantity changes the baking time. If necessary test with one cake and adjust baking time. The cake should have a thin crisp crust.
Coulant is the original name of these cakes, patented by Michel Bras, the famous french chef who created them.
On the original recipe these cakes are made from two separate components:
- a chocolate cake dough
- a ganache
The ganache should be frozen to be enveloped with the cake batter and then frozen again. This way the batter will be completely baked while the ganache will be molten.
Except for the original coulant, all the other cakes of the kind are made from one single batter with an half baked interior.
Some people also call these cakes petit gâteaux.
1001 hours
I divide myself between the 1001 hours of my day and even this way I can’t handle.
Sometimes I just want to hold my breath… for a second… but my hands have their own life and ideas come in bursts.
I can’t believe I’ve almost finished all the book recipes and despite all the work we still have I feel relieved and looking forward to revenge this absence.
Even when I’m away I’m never too far…
Coconut and mascarpone cake with dates
Serves 8:
100 g sugar
50 g dehydrated coconut, grated
250 g mascarpone
5 eggs
100 g wheat flour
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
Grease and flour 8 small rectangular pans.
Mix all the ingredients.
Pour the dough into the pans.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it cool down at room temperature.
Unmold.
Sautéed dates with cinnamon
75 g pitted dates, chopped
15 g butter
½ tsp cinnamon
Melt the butter in a pan.
Add the dates and cinnamon and sautée lightly.
Serve the cake with the sautéed dates.
A jam in the rain…
Pears and chocolate for two
Pear and dark chocolate jam
1 kg pears
625 g sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1 orange
½ cinnammon stick
Zest of ½ orange
250 g dark chocolate, chopped
Cut the pears in thin slices.
Place the pears with the sugar, the juice, the cinnamon and the zest in a pan.
Bring to boil for 5 minutes and remove from heat.
Add the chocolate and combine well until smooth.
Let it cool down and refrigerate overnight covered with wrap film.
Bring to boil again removing the surface foam.
The mixture should cook over low heat for 40 minutes or until it reaches 105ºC.
To test whether the jam is ready, place a cold metal spoon in the mixture and tilt. The jam should form a single stream.
Quickly pour hot mixture into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1 cm headspace; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process jars in boiling-water bath 10 minutes.
The return of the chestnut man
Despite some dried leaves lost on downtown streets and these sadly diminishing days, today was the first chilly day.
Fall arrived late and soaked, taking off the closet the scent of an old chill and making the eternal chestnut man return to the streets…
Chestnut cakes with vanilla syrup
Makes 70:
Vanilla Syrup:
100 g sugar
100 ml water
5 g vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean.
Bring the water with the sugar and vanilla to boil for 1-2 minutes or until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Chestnut cakes
200 g boiled chestnuts
125 g sugar
125 g butter, softened
175 g wheat flour
5 g baking powder
70 ml milk
3 eggs
Purée the chestnuts with the milk. Set aside.
Beat the butter with the sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time while mixing.
Add the chestnut purée, combining well.
Fold in the sifted flour with the baking powder until smooth.
Cover with wrap film and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
Grease and flour madeleine pans.
Place the pans on a baking sheet.
Fill ¾ of each pan and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, unmold and soak generously with the syrup.
Square persimmon
Persimmons add themselves to the Autumn days’… sweet, round, square…
Persimmon cake
200 g butter + 25 g butter to the pan
200 g de sugar + 50 g sugar to the pan
Zest of 1 lemon
40 ml lemon juice
4 eggs
200 g self-raising flour
300 g persimmon pulp
a pinch of salt
Powdered cinammon
Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC.
Grease and line with parchment paper a rectangular pan (20 x 30 cms).
Place the diced butter (25g) in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Spread the persimmon pulp on top and set aside.
Mix sugar with butter and lemon juice until smooth.
Add the previously whisked eggs and combine well.
Fold in the sifted flour with the salt and cinammon.
Spread the dough over the persimmon with the help of a pastry spatula.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Unmold while warm and let it cool down on a wire rack.
Serve warm or cold.
A pinch of vanilla, eggs, sugar and cocoa... Unmeasured words, seasoned silences... stir all that I am and set aside in bain marie...
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