7 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:Hmm, that is ambiguous. I think I'd add everything to the egg yolks - whisk in cocoa, then butter, then melted chocolate, then fold in the whipped whites.
Thanks for the input. That was my first instinct, the yolks with the cocoa (100g yolk to 20g cocoa) has the consistency of a very thick paste, as you add the butter it does slacken but remains thicker than say a mayonaise or a ganache. As you add the melted chocolate to this something splits out - I think perhaps the cocoa butter as you end up with many little bits of black chocolate sludge coated in a thin transparant oil. On my third attempt I 'rescued' it by adding about a tablespoon of boiling water and slowly mixing it back together - almost like saving an hollandaise but with boiling water rather than cold water. I've since tried to carefully heat everything up to ~50°C before combining to see if that would help, but alas not. It's left me quite perplexed to be honest.