Today is World Chocolate Day, celebrating the anniversary of chocolate’s introduction to Europe on 7 July 1550. To celebrate, here are two chocolate recipes from our two newest cookbooks: Yann Couvreur’s Pastry and Delicate Pastry by Nina Métayer.
Chocolate and Pear Soufflé from Delicate Pastry
Makes 6 soufflés
Ingredients
Caramelised pears
3 Comice pears
100 g caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Chocolate soufflé
160 g dark chocolate (64%
cocoa)
150 g full-fat milk
10 g cornflour
40 g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
3 egg whites
Decoration
100 g dark chocolate (72%
cocoa)
2.5 g edible gold glitter
Assembly
100 g unsalted butter, softened
100 g caster sugar
Caramelised pears
Peel the pears and cut out 1.5-cm-thick discs
with a slightly smaller diameter than that of the soufflé dishes. In
a saucepan, make a dry caramel with the sugar and stop the
cooking process with half the lemon juice. Add the pears and
caramelise for 5 minutes, then drain.
Chocolate soufflé
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Blend the
milk and cornflour, then add the sugar and egg yolk and cook
to the consistency of a pastry cream. Pour the mixture into the
melted chocolate, half at a time, and whisk until smooth. Beat the
egg whites to soft peaks and gently fold into the soufflé mixture.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag.
Decoration
Temper the chocolate by heat to 55°C, cooling to
28°C and reheating slightly to 31°C. Thinly spread the chocolate
over an acetate sheet and cut it into 5-mm-wide strips. Allow the
chocolate to harden. Peel off the chocolate strips and brush them
with gold glitter.
Assembly
Work the butter with a spatula until smooth. Grease
8-cm-diameter and 6-cm-deep soufflé dishes by brushing with
the butter and then coating with sugar.
Place a slice of caramelised pear in the bottom of each dish and
pipe over with soufflé mixture. Bake the soufflés for 8 minutes at
180°C. Once out of the oven arrange tempered chocolate strips
on top of the soufflé and serve.
Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake from Yann Couvreur’s Pastry
Serves 8
Ingredients
For the marble cake batter
90 g butter
200 g caster sugar
2 g salt
1 Madagascar vanilla pod
1 large egg
125 g flour
3 g baking powder
125 ml whipping cream
15 g cocoa powder
10 ml rum
For the icing
175 g dark chocolate icing
paste
50 g milk chocolate
20 ml grapeseed oil
To finish
10 g fine chocolate granules
Make the batter
Take the egg and butter out of the fridge a little ahead of time
so that they come to room temperature.
In a mixing bowl, use a spatula to work the butter to a creamy
consistency. Add the sugar, salt and seeds from the split vanilla
pod and whisk until the mixture becomes pale. Add the egg, then
sprinkle in the sifted flour and baking powder. Pour in the cream.
Work the batter until smooth. Set aside in the fridge until ready
to use.
Bake the marble cake
Preheat the oven to 145°C (fan on).
Weigh the batter. You need one amount to weigh 300 g and
the other 290 g. Add the cocoa to the 290 g and mix thoroughly.
Transfer the 2 batters to 2 piping bags.
Using a pastry brush, lightly grease a cake tin measuring 8.5 x
18 x 7 cm, then line it with baking paper. Pipe alternating layers
of cocoa and plain batter (137 g each time), starting with the
chocolate batter. Swirl a spatula through the batter.
Bake for 45–50 minutes with the fan on. Remove from the oven
and leave to cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack before removing
the baking paper. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then brush the
top and sides of the cake with the rum. Wrap in cling film and set
aside in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Make the icing
In a mixing bowl, combine the icing paste, chopped milk
chocolate and oil and melt over a bain-marie until smooth.
To finish
Take the cake out of the freezer, place it on a wire rack and use a
spatula to spread a layer of icing over the base. Leave on the rack
at room temperature for 1 hour.
Heat the icing to 33–35°C, then use the spatula to spread it
over the top and sides. Sprinkle with the chocolate granules.
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