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04/10/2001 Archived Entry: "Jacques Torres and Molten Chocolate Cake"

Jacques Torres, the French pastry chef and now chocolatier, was on my radio program today. He made his name in the U.S. as the pastry man at Le Cirque, which led to two cookbooks, Dessert Circus and Dessert Circus At Home, put him on public television with a program called Dessert Circus, and catapulted him into the position of Dean of Pastry Arts at Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute. He’s now preparing for another TV program all about chocolate, which will be aired on the Food Network.

More to the immediate point, a few months ago Torres opened a chocolate factory and retail shop in the section of Brooklyn that has become known as DUMBO – Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It’s a section of the borough, bordering Brooklyn Heights and what we call Downtown Brooklyn, that is on the waterfront facing Manhattan and that has been filled, until fairly recently, mainly with derelict industrial buildings. Then artists moved in. Now adventurous people are taking up residence in the renovated loft spaces. Interesting stores have begun to open, including Jacque Torres chocolates.

Jacques built the store and factory with his own two hands, pouring the concrete floors in the basement, building the wooden shelving and display case in the retail shop. He has double tendonitis to prove it. Fortunately, the ailment has not deterred him from making excellent chocolates. I particularly like his nut-based fillings, especially the caramelized macadamia nuts coated in chocolate and powdered sugar, and his liquid caramel filling. You might also fancy his flavored tea-filled cream centers, including intriguing Earl Grey, the tea that itself is flavored with bergamot, a citrus fruit.

If you go to the shop at 66 Water St. (just down the block from the famous River Cafe restaurant), you can watch the chocolates being made. There are huge windows on the street and in the shop that look into the front workroom, where you can see the coating machine and conveyor belt that carries the finished chocolates. This is the very same type of machinery as in the famous I Love Lucy episode where Ethel and Lucy can’t keep up with the machine and start stuffing their faces with chocolates.

If you can’t get to Brooklyn to buy Jacques chocolates in person, he accepts mail orders by phone. Call (718) 875-9772. Jacques has a wonderful web-site, too. It’s called MrChocolate.com. Besides listing his product line, it has seasonal recipes (at the moment, they are for Easter confections), as well as directions for tempering chocolate, which came up on Food Talk, and much more.

Another thing that came up on the program, was molten chocolate cake. I promised the recipe I got years ago from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, but Jacque also has one in “Dessert Circus.” It’s called Chocolate Fondants.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten claims he invented this cake, although Jacques disputes that. “He was the first to make it in America, but it existed in France already,” Jacques said. In any case, according to Jean-Georges, who I interviewed on this subject several years ago, when I was writing The Schwartz Who Ate New York column at the Daily News, the cake was not deliberately developed but the result of a mistake. He pulled a classic chocolate pain biscuit (sponge cake) from the oven too soon and it had a runny, but very delicious center.

That was back in 1987, when Vongerichten was the highly acclaimed chef at Lafayette, the dining room in the Drake Hotel. At first he served the liquid-center cake as a petit four. It became so popular he began to make in a larger version. Now, molten chocolate cake is everywhere, a best-seller all across the U.S.

There are now many versions of molten chocolate cake making the rounds and I tried one other with less success. The only tricky part of the Vongerichten recipe is baking it. The batter is simple and quick to whip up, but a minute or a few degrees one way or the other can turn a potential triumph into either a fully firm cake or one that’s so runny it won’t unmold. Getting the timing right -- in your oven and in the particular molds you use -- will require at least one trial run. Don’t worry, though. The cake is still delicious when firm to the center.

I’ve worked out Vongerichten’s recipe using Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate squares available in any supermarket, but, of course, chefs use finer, European chocolate, such as Valrhona and Callebaut. Vongerichten himself uses Valrhona’s Caribe chocolate with 63 percent butterfat.

I found the best molds to use for the cake are small, old-fashioned, nothing-special, oven-proof glass custard/pudding cups that are available in some supermarkets and at most cookware stores. Either the four-ounce or six-ounce size will do. Figuring that no one would prepare the batter and bake these off at the last minute, I’ve given directions for preparing the cakes ahead, then baking them as needed.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s
Molten Chocolate Cakes

Makes 6 or 7 individual cakes

Butter and flour to prepare molds: 4- to 6-ounce oven-proof glass cups, porcelain ramekins, or ceramic custard cups

3 1/2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
6 tablespoons butter
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons flour

Generously butter the molds and flour thoroughly, tapping out any excess flour.

In the top of a double boiler, or in a bowl over a pot of hot water, melt the chocolate and butter together. Stir until well blended, then let cool to warm room temperature, which should take only a few minutes.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg yolks and whole eggs together until blended, then beat in the sugar a tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the eggs are greatly increased in volume, pale yellow, and hold a ribbon for a few seconds when allowed to drip off the beaters onto the top of the mixture. (This will take somewhat longer than usual because of the small ratio of sugar to eggs.)

Pour the beaten eggs into the chocolate (scraping out the bowl with a rubber spatula) and, with a whisk, blend together, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure you bring the chocolate up.

When the mixture is almost blended -- still streaky -- sprinkle the flour on top and continue mixing until well-blended. As Vongerichten says, “Do not attempt to make it light.”

Pour 1/4 cup batter into each prepared mold, using a 1/4-cup dry measure and a small spatula to scrape out the last bits from the measuring cup.

Place filled molds on a baking sheet and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until ready to bake, or for at least 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 475-degree oven for 8 to 9 minutes if chilled only slightly, up to 12 minutes if chilled thoroughly (more than several hours). When done, the batter will be puffed up and, when you move the baking sheet, it won’t jiggle in the center. (If you DO bake the cakes as soon as the batter has been prepared, reduce baking time to about 7 minutes.)

Remove from the oven and immediately unmold the cakes: Hold the mold in one hand, protecting yourself with an oven mitt or pot holder, and work a small sharp knife around the perimeter (between the cake and mold). Place a serving plate on top of the mold and reverse to unmold the cake onto the plate. Use the point of your knife to begin to lift the mold off the plate, then remove it. A nickel-sized spot on top of the cake may still be molten: that’s fine.

Garnish, if desired, with whipped cream, ice cream, or a custard sauce, and, also only if desired, some fresh raspberries or strawberries, or some shaved chocolate.

Note: There’s no need to bake off all the cakes at once. They may be kept, covered with plastic, in the refrigerator for several days. Leftover baked cakes can be kept at room temperature, covered with plastic, in which case the runny centers gain a mousse-like consistency.