Delight - Chocolate Lava Cake in a Jar Recipe
Before arriving in Zurich’s The Dolder Grand, the 38-year-old star pastry chef had worked in Munich’s Atelier.
Christian Hümbs turns everything from chocolate and butter to fish, meat, and vegetables into sweet delights.
The Swiss weekly Gastrojournal considers him a trendsetter of modern patisserie.
For the cake
-
275 g couverture chocolate (70%)
-
300 g butter
-
5 eggs (size M)
-
200 g sugar
-
150 g flour (type 550)
For the liquid
-
45 g butter 200 g
-
couverture chocolate (85%)
-
125 g cream
-
35 g glucose syrup
In addition
-
20 oven-safe jars (Ø: 6 cm, height: 10 cm)semicircle silicone mould tray(20 moulds of 3 – 4 cm Ø; or ice cube tray)
How to proceed
Cut butter in small dice and mince the couverture chocolate for the liquid core.
Mix in a bowl. Mix cream and glucose syrup in a pan and bring to a boil. Stir in couverture chocolate and butter mixture slowly using a whisk and work into a smooth texture. Fill chocolate paste into the moulds of the silicone tray and freeze. Mince the couverture chocolate and dice butter for the cake. Mix and melt in a bain-marie.
Lightly whisk up the eggs and sugar in a bowl with a hand mixer. Gradually stir in couverture chocolate and butter mixture. Gently fold in flour using a pastry scraper. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Fill pastry into the jars (ideally with the help of a piping bag with a big round tip). Add a frozen core to each of the jars and make sure they are fully covered by the pastry. Place the jars on a baking tray and bake the cakes on the middle rack of the oven for 7 to 10 minutes (depending on the size of the jars). Remove from the oven and serve warm.
'In principle, there are three kinds of chocolate: semisweet, milk, and white chocolate. The quality lies in the manufacturing process. Premium quality is conched. Put simply, long conching times will give chocolate a melt-in-the-mouth quality. The higher the rolling speed and the temperatures during the process, the better the quality.´
´When buying chocolate powder, look for highly de-oiled products. I like them best.´
'Dark chocolate consists entirely of cocoa and cocoa butter. White chocolate contains only some of the fruit’s components and mainly consists of powdered milk, sugar, and cocoa butter.´
© [ADDICTIVE CREATIVES] / Stocksy United
Related Stories
The world of natural and orange wines is remarkably diverse. From flawed to exceptional examples, almost everything can be found on the market. Here is a selection of five bottles that are well worth exploring.
Discover more
This fruit is a knockout! Insalata di cedro instantly whisks you away to the Amalfi Coast. Along the winding coastal road, vendors display towering piles of aromatic fruits, while on the steep terraces, trees glow with golden cedri.
Discover more
Whether you are drawn to familiar comforts or curious new discoveries, our gourmet edit invites you to savour summer with imagination.
Discover more
Chocolate, pear, and cinnamon Chantilly – or aubergine, pecan, and liquorice? Classic or avant-garde? The repertoire of Switzerland’s pâtisserie scene is more diverse and creative than ever, offering outstanding opportunities for emerging talent.
Discover more
No question about it: the elegant Mandarin Oriental Palace, housed in a stately 1906 Belle Époque ensemble directly on the promenade of Lake Lucerne, ranks not only among Switzerland’s most prestigious hotel addresses, but is also a compelling destination for discerning gourmets seeking the ultimate culinary delights.
Discover more
Natural and orange wines are gaining attention and increasingly appearing on shelves as well as hotel and restaurant wine lists. Simultaneously fascinating and occasionally difficult to interpret, they can be polarising. Here, we take a closer look.
Discover more
Behind every plate at La Réserve Eden au Lac Zürich lies a story: tomato fields at dawn, olive groves in the heat of summer, pasta machines from the 1970s and, above all, people who work with devotion. Together with chef Marco Ortolani, we visit two producers without whom his cuisine would not be the same.
Discover more