chocolate heaven

The first Sunday of September is Father's Day here in Australia, which means the restaurant becomes crazy hectic during the week leading up to it. Which means all I want to do when I get home is put my feet up and do nothing... so that means no to making dinner and no to any new blog entries. To make matters worse we've decided to renovate our bathroom and kitchen, so every spare minute we have we are planning, looking at tiles, toilets, sinks, taps, bench tops... etc etc. Before the project has even started I get the feeling its going to be a nightmare...

So anyway, Father's Day ritual at our place is my brother and I do the cooking, it seems to work better than buying dad a pair of socks. I didn't want to make anything complicated but knew the perfect recipe for a dessert that was going to blow everyone's mind and it involved dad's favorite, chocolate. Like father like daughter, I get my sweet tooth from my daddy~

Jeff Campbell rightly calls this dessert 'chocolate heaven', just a word of warning though, this dessert is definitely something only a chocolate lover should try and it's so easy to make!! It's a cross between a fondant and a souffle. I prefer to serve mine in a souffle mould (don't worry you will notice the dessert will sink, that's because the center not quite set hence it has a similarities to a fondant). Top it off with vanilla bean ice cream, the real stuff- none of that 99.9% fat free 'healthy' alternative... PLEASE! And if strawberries are in season even better, the super sweetness will bring out the fruity tang and compliment this dessert very very nicely.

Oh lastly you will have to excuse the quality of the photos, after too many wines and my parents ultra white and the even brighter (nonadjustable) lighting doesn't do this dessert justice... and the fact that my mom didn't have any vanilla ice-cream in her freezer is the only reason it's missing in the photo!!!

Chocolate Heaven
Adapted from Jeff Campbell, Chef at Sydney's Mint Bar & Dining

350g cooking chocolate (66% cocoa or more)
125g unsalted butter
6 eggs, separated
150g caster sugar
200g caster sugar
100g almond meal
100g rice flour

First weigh out all the ingredients and preheat the oven to 200°C .

Melt the butter and chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of simmering water (or you can cheap by putting in the microwave for a minute). Beat egg yolk with the 150g caster sugar until pale in color and almost double in size, then add the melted chocolate mixture to the yolk.

Whisk the egg whites and the 200g caster sugar together. Whisk till light and fluffy or silky peaks form (probably a good idea to use an electric mixer) then gently fold into egg yolk mixture.

Fold in the remaining dry mixture to the chocolate and egg mixture. Grease 10 souffle moulds (approx 8cm x 8cm). If 10 is too many you can freeze the un-cooked mix, make sure to wrap it with glad wrap to stop freezer burn and it will last a couple of weeks. Place in the oven for 12mins, and the center should still be soft.