Perfect chocolate fondant (?)

Yup, that's the name of this recipe I've been holding on to for at least a year or more.. to finally make it today! (^^)

A recipe found and tore off a food&travel magazine.. which the writer shares to have perfected from many (failed ~ which I can identify with, like my chase for the perfect butter cake ^^) attempts at the PERFECT chocolate fondant, aka the molten lava cake. Check out savorysweetlife's version online.

The Perfect Chocolate Fondant (recipe by sheena chen, un-dated issue of food&travel, sorry ^^||)

200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into pieces (70-80% cocoa is most ideal)
200g unsalted butter, diced
50g softened butter, for greasing
6 tbsp cocoa powder, for dusting
4 large eggs
4 egg yolks
200g caster sugar
200g plain flour, sifted (could be a typo error in the magazine.. consider using only 100g) 

1. Prepare chocolate sauce. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water (do not let bottom of bowl touch simmering water). Stir till combined and remove from heat. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes.

2. Prepare moulds. Brush moulds with softened/melted butter in an upstroke motion. Place them in the freezer for at least 5 minutes. Remove and brush with a second coat of butter. Then dust moulds with cocoa powder to cover evenly. Shake off excess cocoa powder. Set moulds aside.

3. Whisk whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar till thick and pale for 7 minutes.

4. Add flour into egg mixture till incorporated.

5. Pour melted chocolate into the batter slowly. Mix batter until it forms a loose consistency, then pour into baking tins/ramekins/moulds.

6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 200C for 7 minutes (or less, not more!), middle rack.

7. Unmould by flipping over on serving plate ~ cake should come out easily. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream ^^..

* Chocolate fondants can be frozen up to a month. Bake frozen fondants in pre-heated oven at 200C, middle rack, for 15-18 minutes. 

This decadent chocolate cake is for my sis-in-law, mama pig (whose birthday falls today, and which for the first time I remembered ^^||).. and piggies (^^), who have a thing for warm molten lava cake with ice cream served at chillies', which I find a tad too dry and crumbly. So I really can't explain their "enthusiasm" for this dessert.. except perhaps they really like the hot and cold combo idea.. or they just like the ice-cream (?)! (^^)

pix taken at night ~kinda flat, no? cover patchy exterior by dusting icing sugar, if you like

Anyway, the cake turned out rather nicely with a crusty exterior and an oooey-gooey velvety centre just as the writer promised! However, I can't say that this is the perfect chocolate fondant, because I'm still not a fan ^^||! But piggies love it ^^! So I'm happy. (^^)

Just a note, since I used 45% dark chocolate, I reduced the sugar to 160g. Papa pig's pretty satisfied with the sweetness level ^^. Mama pig however noted that the velvety chocolate centre had a slight "floury" taste. I couldn't quite tell.. though I did feel it wasn't as moist (on its own) as I hoped it would be. Compared to savorysweetlife's and other versions online, the amount of flour in this recipe is extremely high. Perhaps there was a typo error, maybe 100g of flour would have been sufficient. We'll see.. if there's a next time ^^

In any case, my piggies love it! And that's that! (^^)