Fondants au Chocolat et Tuiles au Grué de Cacao

That's a mouthful of a title.

Kind of like the mouthful of cake I had after we made these amazing treats. I took a cooking course with a lovely woman in Arles who, in previous years, has hosted students on my program. I'm so glad I signed up, and can now share the recipes with you!

(P.S. The title means molten chocolate cake and lacy cacao nib cookies!)

There's an extraordinary amount of chocolate in these two desserts. It's so delicious. The molten chocolate cake develops a nice crust, like the edges of a brownie.

And the lacy tuiles seep butter but crisp up minutes after baking into the perfect crumble-able ice cream topping. They're rich, and the cacao nibs add crunch and a deep chocolate flavor.

Without further ado, the recipes! Pictures included for some, but not all steps, because I'm an airhead (name that blog...)

Fondants au Chocolat
Yield: about 10 cupcake-sized fondants

Ingredients:

• 200g good-quality chocolate
• 70g butter
• 4 eggs
• 70g granulated sugar
• 50g all purpose flour
• lemon curd, marshmallow fluff, etc for a surprise inside
• cupcake liners (or butter and flour for the pan, but that could get tricky to unmold. We used silicone cupcake liners, with which I am now in love)

Mise en place

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F) and prepare the baking cups/cupcake tin (come to think of it, little ramekins would work great!
   
2. Melt the chocolate (alone and without stirring!! This is very important so as to not disturb the crystalline structure of the chocolate) in a saucepan over very low heat, or in the microwave.

   

   Before stirring, after melting. You can still see the imprint the top of the chocolate pieces had!

3. Add butter, stir to combine. Add eggs, stir to combine. Add sugar and flour and mix again until well combined. The batter should be liquidy and glossy.
   
4. Add about half an inch of batter to the bottom of each of the cakes, then a dollop of curd, jam, fluff, whatever you like. Add more batter to cover, reaching about 3/4 full. 
   
   
   
   
5. Bake 8-10 minutes, until the edges are set but the centers still have a bit of jiggle to them. Cool for about 5 minutes, then unmold and serve warm. Though we didn't have it, vanilla ice cream would be an incredible addition.

Tuiles au Grué  de Cacao

yield: about 20 cookies

Ingredients:

• 30g all purpose flour
• 100g granulated sugar
• 10g cocoa powder (dutch process)
• 90g butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 20g cacao nibs

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C (350 degrees F). Prepare baking sheets with something nonstick (silicone or parchment are my preferred, but foil+nonstick spray works too!).
2. Mix all ingredients. The consistency of the dough should be that of ganache, thick and stiff and fragrant with chocolate.
   
3. Drop on baking sheet by the rounded tablespoonful, smoothing tops to make rounds that are about a centimeter tall and 2.5 inches diameter. Leave about two inches between (ours spread and fused, but cut apart into rectangles they looked good too!).
4. Bake for 8-? minutes. This is the trickiest part, because they're so dark you can't see when they're burned. But they should be caramelized, such that when you take them out they're still flexible, entirely flattened, and there are holes between the nibs. They'll look black as asphalt (see picture above).
5. Cut apart, if fused, and wait to cool if you want the crunch. During this maleable time, you can form the tuiles around a glass or jar to make pringle-shaped cookies, or roll around a stick to make cigarettes.

Recipes courtesy of Hélène Biesse