Recipe Needed: Molten-centered dessert

[Carolyn Tillie]

Here's the quandry... I saw on one of those Discovery Channel cooking shows, some pastry chef made ice cubes of one flavor and then pushed them into the batter of another flavor. When baked, the outer batter firmed up but the inner "ice cube" became molten.

I have perused every cookbook and website to no avail. I HAVE found those recipes where the batter is slightly baked and the center is left liquid. Since I want a different flavor in the middle, this won't work. What I am envisioning is a White Chocolate exterior that will ooze Dark Chocolate when pierced..

Any help most graciously appreciated!

[Steve Klc]

Carolyn--what you'll need is a relatively quick-baking cake batter, that you can fold some white chocolate into.  Pipe that batter into a timbale (these things bake better--i.e. more quickly--if they're upright) stop halfway, then push a frozen ball or cylinder of dark chocolate ganache into it, then finish piping the cake batter around it.  Philippe Conticini just shared the recipe for his most excellent "White Chocolate Moelleux" cake that has a liquid center of blueberries--it's on page 40 of the August 2001 issue of Pastry Art & Design, the one that has Philippe on the cover holding a salmon--and it's right out of his Petrossian boutique in NYC.  This cake might be a good starting point for the dessert you're trying to create.  (Another might be a white chocolate brownie recipe, but that might make your dessert heavier than you intend.)

Of course, Food Arts had already introduced Philippe to American foodies long before, profiling him in their July 2000 issue. And as long as we're on the subject, the current issue of Thuries magazine, in French only--#132 September 2001--has an amazing 28 page array of Philippe's current exciting work as both chef and pastry chef--with recipes and beautiful, inspiring photography.  (Single issues of Thuries--a little known secret in this country and the way many culinary francophiles keep up with who's doing what back in France--can be purchased from JB Prince, 36 E. 31st Street, 800.473.0577) Thuries magazine goes along way to explain why certain presentation styles and concepts show up on the plates of New York restaurants.

Not much that is valuable regarding the current dessert scene makes it into cookbooks or websites, they're either dumbed down or relatively useless collections of recipes.  And, I relaize this might sound strange, but it's not the recipe really, that's important, but understanding the concept and the technique.  I hope this helps.

[Nancy Berry]

I think I saw a recipe for the dessert you described at the following:

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansite....16.html

Hope it's the right one.

--Nancy Berry--

San Francisco

[Carolyn Tillie]

Hey, both of you guys! Great help...

I'll be experimenting this weekend because what I ultimately want to end up with (and I know how bizarre this sounds...) is that the molten dark chocolate center will have an essence of truffle to it -- I'll try it with a bit of oil and powder to see if either work. I wanted the contrast of a white-chocolate cake to encase it.

I'll provide recipes if I think they are successful!

[Steve Klc]

Carolyn--you might borrow a trick from Gray Kunz and use the most neutral oil--his French grape seed oil flavored with black truffle. I bet it would work beautifully if incorporated into the ganache and frozen in that dark chocolate center.  Do share your results with the "black diamond."

[Holly Moore]

Not sure this is what you have in mind, but the Batter Fried Oreo's at the Bloomsburg Fair probably qualify and are a lot simpler to prepare.  For info see my post in the PA section.

[rajsuman]

Hi Carolyn,

I'm resurrecting this very old thread because I'm curious to know how your dessert turned out. The link doesn't lead to a recipe anymore. Sounds very unusual!

Suman

[chiantiglace]

haha. You can do this several ways. Hell i could probably just throw something together. Don't fear. All you need is a jelled structure, usually a fruit puree/jam that has been stablized with gelatin and or pectin. The puree must have a very low water content so reduction may need to occur. Once structure is firm at room temp you the freeze the gel. Cut the gel in desired sizes and press into a batter that is firm enough to hold it. Any batter that is not chemically leavened isn't going to work. Usually a flourless cake works great. And yes you can leaven a flourless cake, even though it usually requires cornstarch to tighten up the batter. Friburgs Chocolate Truffle cake would work alright. I'm sure you could use shortbread recipes and muffin batter.