Our Favourite Valentine’s Day Recipes: Chocolate Fondant

As the parent of a seven-month-old baby, eating out these days is a bit trickier than it used to be. By the time you pay for a babysitter for a few hours, it can also be quite an expensive night out. But the thing is, I love my food. Never one to miss out on a good meal, I’ve taken to hunting down delicious recipes to cook at home.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and I’m on a mission to collect a sumptuous selection of recipes so I can plan the perfect Valentine's meal with my husband. I’d love to share some of my favourites here on our blog with you, so keep checking back over the next couple of weeks for some darn good dishes.

Our first recipe is a Chocolate Fondant from Mark Bennett, Head Chef at Esca Bimbadgen Restaurant. I’m definitely a dessert girl, and nothing says ‘romance’ like chocolate, especially if it comes in the form of a gooey fondant with some berries on the side…

Chocolate Fondant

Ingredients (makes 12):

200g good quality dark chocolate

200g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

7 eggs

120g plain flour

Equipment

• 12 x Dariole moulds

• Electric mixer / hand beater

• Sifter

• Rubber spatula

• Bowls

• Pot

Delicious Chocolate Fondant from Mark Bennett, Head Chef at Esca Bimbadgen, Hunter Valley

Method

1. Using some extra butter, grease the dariole moulds on the inside and allow the butter to set in the fridge, repeat this process so you have two layers of butter.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a metal bowl over the top of a pot that is lightly simmering with water, alternatively you can melt them in short bursts in the microwave.
3. In the mixer, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on a medium/high speed until the mix is white and leaves a trail in itself (ribbon stage) about 10 minutes.
4. Sift the flour into the creamed egg and sugar in two batches, folding through the flour between additions.
5. Fold through the butter and chocolate mix
6. Pour into the dariole moulds and set in the fridge

To Serve

1. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees, you will need to test bake a fondant to get the timing right.
2. When the oven is hot place a fondant on a tray in the oven and allow to cook for 7 mins.
3. When it is cooked, turn it out onto the tray it was cooked on and allow any excess butter to run off, leave the dariole mould on the fondant to allow the outside to set fully.
4. Remove the dariole mould and break open the fondant, it should be soft and gooey inside. If your fondant was completely cooked through, reduce the cooking time. If the fondant was too fragile and broke too easily, increase the cooking time.
5. Serve with some seasonal fresh raspberries, and ice cream or crème fraiche.

Esca Bimbadgen Restaurant is located within Bimbadgen Winery in the Hunter Valley, NSW. Bimbadgen Winery is a must-see winery the next time you are in the Hunter and boasts an expansive cellar door and modern tasting rooms, café, accommodation, outdoor amphitheatre, and of course the award-winning Esca Bimbadgen Restaurant.

Open 7 days for lunch 12pm – 4pm. Dinner Wednesday to Saturday nights from 6pm.

790 McDonalds Road, Pokolbin  NSW  2320

Phone: 02 4998 4666

Email: esca@bimbadgen.com.au

www.bimbadgen.com.au