If you want to know how to make an amazing dish you
have eaten in a restaurant, we can help. This month, we're on the trail of a meltingly good, hot chocolate pudding.
The Challenge
"Please can you track down the recipe for a wonderful
pudding that I had while on holiday in South Africa. At the end of a packed
trip which took in a game reserve, the stunning Garden Route and the wine
country around Franschhoek, we spent some time in Cape Town. While staying
at The Vineyard Hotel, we ate at its superb Au Jardin
restaurant, which looks out on to Table Mountain.
It serves excellent French cuisine and has been rated as one of the country's top ten eateries. The whole meal was top class, but the highlight was the melting chocolate pudding The outside was crisp while the inside was an oozing pool of melted chocolate. This luscious creation was served hot with white chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. I have tried unsuccessfully to recreate the pudding at home and so I would be really grateful if you could get hold of the recipe for me.
Pat Adams, Chichester, West Sussex
The Solution
WFI spoke to Au Jardin, but the restaurant regretfully told
us that it couldn't help because
its recipe is a closely guarded secret! However, WFI has
done a bit of detective work and has discovered a little more
about these indulgent, self-saucing desserts. It seems that several world-class
chefs, including Michel Bras, Raymond Blanc and Jean-Christophe Novelli have
developed their own particular versions of this chocoholic's dream, and there
has even been some undignified bickering over who exactly got there first.
Choosing to rise above such things, WFI called in the talents of ace baker
Rosemary Perkins, who also shares with us the secrets of successful chocolate
cookery in Cooking with Chocolate. These
puddings do require a little extra effort, but the end
result will more than make up for any time invested in the kitchen.
"It's vital to get the cooking time just right," explains
Rosemary. "If you have time, do a test run with one pudding first - this recipe
makes enough to allow this." Should your first attempt turn out perfectly, you
will end up with one pudding too many, but that's definitely something you'll
be able to live with.