Molten Chocolate Fondants

Molten chocolate fondants or chocolate lava cakes are heavenly mini chocolate pots with a mouth-watering molten chocolate centre that oozes out when cut into.

These individual flourless cakes are great for when family or friends are visiting and you want a decadent dessert. Simple to throw together with basic ingredients, they consist of a chocolate cake batter with a chocolate ganache centre. Once baked the outside sets and the centre remains a divine and runny. The key to this recipe is the timing. Don’t panic if you don’t get it perfect the first time, you’ll be wanting to bake this recipe again and again.

This recipe makes four portions, it can be doubled for a family crowd. Try serving them dusted with a bit of extra cocoa powder or icing sugar. I love these cakes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and topped with hot caramel sauce. Alternatively, you could try them with some whipped cream and fresh summer berries. And if you would like to try some flavour twists, look at my variation section for ideas.

If you like the sound of these delicious fondants, you might also like my walnut triple chocolate brownies or blueberry white chocolate blondies.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂

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RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

• EASE: simple.
• GREAT FOR: special occasions like valentine’s day, Mother’s day or friends and family visiting.
• TASTE: indulgent chocolate cake with heavenly chocolate gooey centre.
• TEXTURE: soft light sponge with a silky-smooth liquid chocolate centre.
• QUANTITY: 4 pots
• TIME: 42 minutes

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INGREDIENTS

For this chocolate fondants recipe all you need are these 7 ingredients:

• Butter – adds structure and a rich butter flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer.

• Good quality chocolate – use a good quality as it is the hero of this recipe. I like to use 70% dark chocolate and 50% cocoa solids in equal parts for this recipe.

Chocolate recommendations: bars – Lindt Excellence dark 70% bar 100g, Montezuma’s darkside 51% bar 90g, Menier dark cooking chocolate 100g, Green and Black’s Organic dark Chocolate 100g, 1kg bags – Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut milk chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate.

• Medium eggs – add structure, whisking the eggs incorporates air, helping the fondants rise in the oven. Make sure they are at room temperature before you start.

• Light brown sugar – gives structure and sweetness, plus it’s not as sweet as white sugar.

• Vanilla extract or paste – adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours.

– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

• Plain or all-purpose flour – for adding structure and lightness to the cake.

• Cocoa powder – I prefer to use a high-quality dark cocoa powder over regular cocoa powder. As I only use it to stop the fondants sticking in the ramekins you can use whatever you have available at home.

Cocoa recommendations: Dr. Oetker fine dark cocoa powder or not as dark – Sevenhills wholefoods organic cacao powder

TIP: I highly recommend adding a good pinch of salt to your desserts. Salt helps balance out the sweetness and richness. It also elevates the other ingredients, bring out the best characteristics of any recipe. In a seemingly absurd or contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouths ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells in our tongue. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds. I recommend Maldon Sea salt flakes or Cornish sea salt.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

SUGAR-FREE AND LOW-CALORIE OPTIONS

• Sugar-free or calorie reduced options: try alternatives such as coconut sugar, honey, natural erythritol, xylitol, stevia or fructooligosaccharide powder instead. There are also sweetener mixes available, that are 70% calorie reduced and low in carb.

• Brown sugar suggestions: Pure Via Baker’s soft brown sugar or Sukrin Gold’s natural brown sugar alternative.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Butter: I recommend Naturli vegan block or Flora plant-based block butter alternative.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

Try some of these flavour twists.

• Spices – add an exotic twist, by adding 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or a 1/4 tsp of ground chilli or ground cardamom when adding the flour.

• Nuts – provide textural interest, increasing the moreishness element. Try crushed roasted nuts, such as pistachios, hazelnuts or peanuts. (Salted nuts also works well.) You can add them to the whole batter when adding the melted chocolate or half fill the ramekins with some of the batter and then sprinkle a teaspoon into the centre, before topping off with more cake batter.

• Espresso coffee – is a great compliment to chocolate. Add one teaspoon of instant coffee powder to the melted chocolate and butter mix before adding it to the egg mixture.

• Alcohol – gives these fondants all sorts of flavour options, add a tipple of your favourite liquor – such as Baileys, rum or orange brandy to the melted chocolate.

• Flavoured chocolate – try using good quality chocolate that has natural oils added to it, such as orange, raspberry or mint. Lindt have some great options.

Flavoured recommendations: Lindt Excellence dark orange or Raspberry chocolate bar

• Citrus fruit – for a zing, try adding the finely grated zest of 1 large orange.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

This fondant should be served straight away while it’s still hot, otherwise the centre cooks through and you lose the gooey centre. If you don’t use all the fondants straight away they have a nice brownie texture to them.

Freezing: The fondants can be frozen for up to a month prior to baking once the moulds have been filled. To bake from frozen, simply add an additional 5 mins to the baking time.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here is a list of some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Pyrex Measuring Jug 500ml | Capacity 568ml / 20 ounce 
• Pyrex Glass Measuring Jug, 1L

I think I have said it before that I am not a big fan of plastic, so I like this type of glass measuring jug for calculating my liquids.

• Milk Saucepan, 1 Litre With Double Sided Pouring Lips

This small pan is a great size for boiling small amounts of liquids and it has pouring lips built into the rim of the saucepan which makes it easy to use.

• White Porcelain Ramekins, 175ML Baking Cups – Durable Pack of 6

I love these for serving hot and cold individual desserts – soufflés, creme brûlée, lava cakes, custards, puddings and ice cream.

Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use high quality butter and chocolate for this recipe as it makes all the difference to the finished result.

I like to use a large Pyrex jug to make the batter in from the start. It makes it easier to pour the batter into the ramekins, and there’s less cleaning and washing to do.

Add the chocolate and butter mixture to the eggs in two lots, this will avoid all the chocolate getting stuck on the bottom of the bowl and it not getting entirely mixed in.

Avoid over baking the fondants, they will still taste great but won’t have that gooey centre. Once baked, remove them from the oven and set them aside for 1 minute, then invert onto a dessert plate and serve immediately.

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