Sweet & Savory

SHF 13 - Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet

The Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet is our contribution to Lovescool's SHF 13, whose theme is dark chocolate!

The inspiration came from a lovely chocolate mi-cuit we had at Marinus a couple months ago. Not having been so bold as to ask their pastry chef for their guarded recipe, we instead made these molten chocolate cakes, from Jean-George Vongerichten. Despite being accustomed to the darker Scharffen Berger baking chocolates (70% bittersweet and 80% extra dark varieties), we decided to stay true to the recipe and use 61% Valrhona chocolate.

After sitting for a mere minute out of the oven, each molten chocolate cake is inverted and topped with a chocolate cacao nib tuile. As a finishing touch, we added a few drops of strawberry sauce and a scoop of yogurt sorbet, made from Straus' whole milk vanilla yogurt (recipe courtesy of Claudia Fleming's The Last Course).

We could hardly wait for the photos to be taken to dig into this delicious looking and smelling dessert. The molten cakes were cooked slightly more than intended, probably because we didn't have 6 ounce ramekins but had instead used 4 ounce ramekins, but yet forgot to reduce the baking time to account for this change. So, some of the centers were set like the mi-cuit we had hoped to duplicate, much to our delight. We had been a little afraid that the tuiles would turn out to be too thick or inconsistent buttery messes, but were relieved in the end. They were delicate yet crisp, adding a little texture to the otherwise smooth combination of cake and sorbet.

Two things we might do differently when we make this again — to use raspberries instead of strawberries for a more intense and contrasting flavor; and to use our 80% Scharffen Berger chocolate for an extra dark decadence!