The Chocolate Fondant or Molten Lava Chocolate cake is one of the most loved dessert items out there. This is probably the most asked about dessert from people to me, asking if I can make this. The excitement and anticipation of wondering if it will be perfectly molten inside is what draws in the audience. You can see the faces light up when they crack open the  fondant cake with there spoon and they see that thick, rich and decadent chocolate "lava" flow out from the core. (thus also know as the lava cake) Its like your first kiss, you will always remember where you had your first chocolate fondant and how amazing every bite was. For those who had a bad first experience and never had it again, I strongly advice that you give this a go. 
With this recipe I decided to add something a little different to all my dear friends who absolutely love caramel. You simply make a batch of Butter Scotch sauce and allow it to set. Once it has set is mostly firm, use a parisian scoop to make small balls and place onto a baking tray with silicon paper on. Place into your freezer and allow to become completely frozen. You can use this for many different sauces or filling to make your chocolate fondant your own. 

Ingredients 

• 125 g Butter
  
• 125 g Dark Chocolate
  
• 60 g Castor sugar
  
• 2 Whole eggs
  
• 2 Egg yolks
  
• 2 tsp Cake Flour
  
• 2 tbls Melted butter
  

Method: 
180C/356F for 6-7 minutes

1. Start off by weighing out all of your ingredients and making sure your oven is pre-heated and ready to go. 
2. Next you should shift all your dry ingredients separately  to ensure there are no lumps or impurities.
3. Now prepare your ramekins by brushing with butter and then dust with coco powder, making sure you remove all the excess coco powder. Place in the fridge until mixture is ready.    
4. Place a medium sized pot on the stove and fill it about 1/4 of the way with water and bring to the boil. Once it is boiling, turn down the heat so you have a light disturbance on the surface of the water. 
5. Now place your butter and chocolate in a heat prove mixing bowl and place it on top of the pot with simmering water. ( the water should never make direct contact with the water as this will cause the mixture to seize) 
6. Stir every now and then to allow for even melting though out the mixture. Once it is completely melted place to the side on top of a dish towel to keep it form cooling down too much. 
7. Now combine your eggs, yolks and sugar and whisk over the bain-marie till you reach ribbon stage. ( will be a light yellow color and you will be able to form a figure 8 on the surface of the mixture)   
8. Now that your two mixtures are ready, pour the chocolate into the egg mixture and fold gently until 50% incorporated. 
9. Now add your cake flour and continue to fold gently until completely incorporated. 
10. Remove your ramekins and fill 3/4 of the way fill and place directly into your pre-heated oven for 6-7 minutes. 
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a minute and then gently remove from ramekin & wow your guest. 

Caramel Centered Chocolate Fondant

1. So for my caramel lovers out there, when you reach step 10, you will do the following.
2. Remove the frozen butter scotch ball from the freezer ( the balls should not be to big or heavy) 
3. Pour the ramekin 1/2 with the fondant mixture and then place you caramel ball in the middle and then pour till 3/4 filled.
4. You will have to immediately place your fondant in the oven to prevent the ball sinking completely to the bottom. 
5. Bake for the same amount of time and see the results once you break it open for the first time. 

There are three different cakes I hold near and dear to my heart and Carrot Cake is one of them. And not to brag but I do think this is one of the best recipes for carrot cake out there. What makes it a little bit more decadent you ask? Well it's the banana I use in the recipe. I also like the texture this cake has, it being riddled with big chunks of pecan nuts. Then comes the sweet tangy cream cheese frosting, not too much and not too little but just the right amount. I finish it off with some fresh fruits and a sprinkle of pecan nuts. I feel it's truly everything you could want in a cake, but then again that's just me!

So as the title of this blog mentions, we have our very first featured baker on Chef Dewet Visser. He is no ordinary baker, neither is he a professional baker, but instead he is my best friend, Craig Woolfson. He baked a cake intending to make his gran's 80th birthday a memorable one. He asked me for some assistance with what cake to bake and we finally decided that he should do the Carrot Cake that I had in my Booklet. He went out and got all the ingredients he needed, followed my step by step instructions, and recorded the process. So today I decided to share this with my fellow bakers and followers of my website. This was his first time baking a Carrot cake of this size so keep that in mind when you see the final product. With that being said, anyone who would like to feature on my website simply email me at chef@chefdewet.co.za and you could have the spotlight on Chef Dewet Visser for the day. 

Carrot Cake
Ingredients

• 187.5 ml Oil
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 187.5 ml Castor Sugar
  
• 100 ml Pecan Nuts (You can use any nut you prefer really, I still want to try it out with Pistachios) 
  
• 375 ml Plain Flour
  
• 5 ml Vanilla Extract
  
• 5 ml Baking Powder
  
• 5 ml Bicarbonate of Soda 
  
• 2 ml Salt
  
• 2 ml Mixed Spices
  
• 5 ml Cinnamon
  
• 2 ml Nutmeg
  
• 125 ml Banana
  
• 250 ml Fine Grated Carrots
  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160oC/320oF.
2. Place the oil, eggs, and vanilla essence into a mixing bowl and mix well until you have a light, thick consistency.
3. Add in all your dry ingredients (Including the nuts) which you need to sift at least once.
4. Mix until everything is well incorporated.
5. Next add in your carrots and bananas, giving it another good mix.
5. Grease your cake pan, adding silicon paper to the bottom, and finally add your mixture. Place into your preheated oven of 160oC/320oF for 30-35 minutes. It should have a nice golden top once complete.
6. Once out of the oven, allow to cool and finally place into the fridge while you prepare your frosting.

White Chocolate & Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 230 g Sugar
  
• 90 g Water
  
• 5 ml Lemon Juice
  
• 150 g Egg Whites
  
• 120 g Castor Sugar
  
• 250 g Soft Butter
  
• 250 g Cream Cheese (Unsalted) 
  
• 500 g White Chocolate
  
• Zest of 1 Orange
  

Method 

1. Place the larger amount of sugar, water and lemon juice into a pot and bring to the boil. Continue to boil until the syrup is at 114 - 116oC/237.5 - 240.8oF (This is known as soft ball stage).
2. Place your white chocolate over a bain-marie to melt. The water should not be boiling too rapidly but instead just simmering to create steam (If its too hot the chocolate can burn and you wont be able to use it! Also don't move it around too much just stir every now and then).
3. While waiting for your stock syrup to reach soft ball stage whip up your egg whites. When you reach medium peak stage start to add in the smaller amount of sugar (It must be castor sugar), adding it 1 teaspoon at a time while whisking until you reach stiff peak stage.
4. Once syrup is at soft ball stage start to pour at a slow steady rate into your mixing bowl with the meringues, whisking the entire time. The end result should be a glossy meringue with stiff peaks (This is known as a boiled meringue or Italian Meringue).
5. Remove the meringue from the mixing bowl and place soft butter and the zest into a bowl and mix until pale in colour.
6. Next add your cream cheese and follow by pouring your melted chocolate into the bowl with the butter. Whisk well (Your chocolate should not be straight off the bain-marie, it should rest for at least 1 minute before being added).
7. Now adding 1/3 at a time, fold the mixture into your Italian Meringue to create the final product.
8. Allow to rest in the fridge for 5 minutes and then you're ready to frost your cake!


Edited by
Monique Boaventura

Transfer paste is a paste consisting of four simple ingredients and the coloring or flavouring of your choice. You are able to either pipe different design onto silicon paper with a piping bag. Or you can simply spread the paste onto the whole piece of silicon paper and create patterns but removing the paste with a scraper. The only limitation this great paste has, is the limitations of your imagination and artistic ability. As you might have seen with my previous post of the Japoniase I created a green pattern on the outside of the meringue. The way I managed to do this was by simply spreading the paste on the silicon paper and then using the back of a spoon and scraped off the extra paste. I also used macha to not only flavour the paste but also give it that stunning green color. 

Each of these picture tell a story of my time in Kuwait up until this point. I will add more photos as they come along. I have put short description below some of the picture so you can get some sort of an idea what the mean. Only thing that could have possibly made this whole experience more rewording is if there was someone to enjoy them with me. Hope you enjoy having a look though all of these and keep an eye out for more post tonight. 

Japonaise, the first thing that might come to mind is whether its origins is based from Japan. It would be a good guess as "Japonaise" in French does mean "Japan" or "From Japan". But in this case there is no direct connection between this Meringue and Japan. So I decided to play around with this confusing yet interesting meringue and made it more Japanese. The way this idea come about was when I was asked to come up with new desserts for the menu at work. As I am working in a Japanese Restaurant I remembered this meringue from back in college. I think it stood out too me because I also first though it would have come from Japan or at least have some sort of Japanese history behind it. At first there was only one popular Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate, matcha. Matcha is the Japanese name for finely milled green tea leafs which have recently exploded into a huge hype, similar to that of Red Velvet. 

The taste of good quality macha for me would be similar to that of seaweed or rather you would pick up some sort of "ocean taste" or "fishy taste" as some people say. This is what we who believe in the term umami could call umami. The meaning of umami when all your taste sensations are stimulated at the same time. This includes sweet, sour, bitter and salt

The other truly Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate is know as Anko, which is Azuki beans (red beans) which have been cooked till soft and then pureed. It is then sweetened and used in many traditional Japanese pastries. The way I would incorporate this unique flavour into my dessert is simple. I would start by making my own anko, this way you can control the sweetness and don't have to worry about it being over or under the desired sweetness. I would then incorporate it into a Diplomat Cream. Diplomat cream is the combination of whipped cream and creme Pastissiere. This would give you a good smooth and light texture which would go well with the slightly crunchy meringue. I have yet to experiment with this as I have not yet had the opportunity. 
So now that you know a bit more about Japonaise and the two major ingredients in Japanese pastry world, Im now going to give you the Recipe for Japonaise. Once I have the chance to try the filling I will then also post that recipe, but for now I will just provide you with my first filling attempt. 

After spending half the day in bed catching up on some Grey's Anatomy, I got a call from a fellow chef  inviting me for late lunch at this new Japanese Restaurant Called ORA. So I decided to do little research about the place. Interesting, I must say.... ORA had'nt even opened it doors and yet it was already a hit on instagram and the rest of the Kuwait social media community. But that was not what I wanted to know though. As a Chef myself, when a new place opens, I'm more interested in the people behind the scenes than the name, but thats a story for another day ;-)

Fast forward, we get there... And I must say myself, I was sold from the moment we entered the door. The dining area was spacious, clean, and very welcoming to say the least. We had a look at the menu and it had more lots of beatiful dishes to choose, from Cold Tapas, Hot Tapas, Salads, Sigiture Sushi Rolls, Donburi's ( A Japanese "rice bowl dish" consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice), Dessert and finally Fresh Mocktails....
So in the blistering heat, I decided to kick things off with their Ginger & Lemon Ice Tea

From Hot Tapas I had the Tiger Creamy Shrimp. 

Signature Sushi Rolls we tried the ORA Crispy Roll

Crispy Rice with Tuna

Robata Grilled Lobster

Aslo tried thier Fresh Water Melon Juice

Cinnamon Bred Pudding (My flavourate*****) and Homemade Ice Cream

The place is beautiful! From the fresh flowers on the table, to the chilled out music playing in the background and the wierd but awesome art piece they have mounted on the wall. You can't help not notice such things. The  food as well is on its own level... Nothing out of the ordinary for me but definately something to try out when you are craving for something new and fresh. I must warn you though, the place is a bit pricey and some of the portions are a bit below par.

Other than that I liked the place on a once off basis. So i'm giving ORA a 4* seal of approval.
Want to try it out? Swing by at Arabella Mall  and check the place out

Choux pastry is a great recipe to have in you cooking arsenal, it is a versatile product that can be used for sweet and savoury dishes. Depending on your piping capability you will be able to pipe eclairs, profiteroles, choux buns and even choux pretzels. Making classic pastries such as Croquembouche, St. Honore, éclaires, Choux Swans and Paris-brest. If you are more of a savoury person, use all of  the classics and use them in savoury applications. For example instead of filling the profiteroles with creme patisserie, use a fulling of cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. Or use the St. Honore as a base for your next sautéed  Mushroom medley with fresh ribbons of baby asparagus and a mushroom stock Veloute. Or the next time you want to make your own gnocchi, you will be able to make your own Choux pastry. Choux pastry truly has an endless amount of uses that can make your next dinner party that bit more Extraordinary. 

Recipe

•  250g water
  
• 75g butter
  
• 150g plain flour
  
• 180g egg (scramble eggs and then weigh) 
  

Method 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 220C/482F
2. Start by adding your water and butter into a medium sized sauce pan and bring to the boil.
3. Sift flour to prevent lumps in your pastry 
4. Once butter is completely melted remove from the heat and then add in your flour.
5. Using a wooden spoon, vigorously stir the mixture till it becomes a smooth paste with no flour lumps.
6. Once there are no lumps, and then allow to cool down slightly.
7. Now gradually add in your egg mixture while you vigorously stir the mixture to prevent egg from coagulating. 
8. Once all your egg mixture has been mix in, you should have a smooth some what firm mixture. 
9. Place into your piping bag and pipe onto silicone paper into the shape you desire. (to prevent silicone paper moving around the baking tray, use some of the pastry to glue it down.) 
10. Before you place the tray into the oven sprinkle some water over the tray to help the pastry to puff up nicely. 
11. Keep in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. Remove and allow to cool down, one cooled use in desire application. 

When you work with some recipes you might notice that they sometimes tell you to bring your sugar to a soft ball stage for an Italian Meringue, or a Hard Crack stage for dipping fruit in to give it a glistening coat of sugar. Yet sometimes they don't include the temperatures to which you need to boil the sugar to in order to getit to that stage. Well now all you need to do is refer back to my website. This information will be available under Culinary Glossary & Ingredients and then Sugar. This will also give you a few uses for some of the different stages of boiling, so if you would like to play around making sugar Angel Hair, now you know to which temperature you need to take your sugar. Also just remember when you work with sugar it retains heat very well and will continue to cook even once its been removed from the heat, so you have to anticipate a minute ahead of time, or place it on a cold surface straight away other wise it will over cook. 
Please be very careful when working with sugar, its not nice having a lump of blistering hot sugar fall on you! 

Boiling Stages

1. Strong Thread: 104°C - Glaze for sugared fruits.
   
2. Blow: 110°C (‘Physical test’ - Twist wire into a loop shape, dip into solution, blow, long bubble will appear)
3. Soft Ball: 116°C (‘Physical test’ – Dip teaspoon into cold water, then into boiling syrup, remove a little bit of sugar syrup, return to cold water, form a softball.)
4. Hard Ball: 128°C (‘Physical test’ - Same as soft ball however sugar will form a hard ball)
5. Soft Crack: 138°C (‘Physical test’ – Sugar will slightly crack once cooled)
6. Crack: 145°C (‘Physical test’ – Sugar will break cleanly once cooled) Uses: Sugar Ribbons, Blowing Sugar, Spun Sugar.
7. Hard Crack:  149°C (‘Physical test' – Sugar will break cleanly if bitten between teeth and should not adhere to them if correctly cooked) Uses: Pulled Sugar, Rock Sugar, Straw Sugar and Fruit Glaze.
8. Caramel:  175°C - Changes colour to caramel.
9. Black Jack: 179° C - Sugar is burnt

Edited by: Monique Boaventura

This sauce can be made and used with many different proteins or stir-fry dishes. It's a very simple and easy recipe to follow, and can be stored in the fridge for 1-2 weeks (ensuring the container which is being used is properly sterilised).

For the wine I used a good quality Merlot, it has a lower tannin count than other more full bodied red wines such as Cabernet or Sauvignon. The tannin in wines are what give the wine the bitter and woody puckering sensation. With less tannin in the Merlot, it allows for the fruity essence of the wine to be more present, making it perfect for the sauce. 

Ingredients 

• 12 Ripe Plums (skin and seeds removed)
• 2 Granny Smith Apples or any dessert apple (peeled and cored)
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Juice of one Orange
• 1-3 tbs Sugar (Depending on the sweetness of the plums and apples add sugar accordingly)
  
• 200 ml Water 
  
• 20 ml Red Wine (fruity wine works best - optional)  

Method 

1. Place a medium to large sauce pan on a high heat and allow to heat up, once hot add in your wine if you chose to add the wine (this just burns off some of the alcohol).
2. Add your peeled and cored apples as well as your peeled and pitted plums which you have cut into medium size pieces. 
3. Allow to cook in the wine till it becomes some what sticky.
4. Add your sugar, lemon juice, orange juice and salt, and allow to reduce once more to a stick consistency. 
5. Next add your 200 ml of water and turn the heat down to a simmer. Once the apples are soft place mixture into blender (or simply use a hand blender) and blend until smooth. 
6. To ensure there are no impurities, pass through a sieve once and place back into the pot and onto a medium heat ( unless you are happy with the consistency).
7. Allow to reduce down till it coats the back of a spoon and is at a correct sauce consistency.  
8. Allow to cool before placing into storing containers and then place into fridge until needed. 

Edited by: Monique Boaventura

Here it is, my rusks recipe I promised you earlier today. I'm going to give you two different variations today, one is a very popular flavour amongst South Africans and the other one is more of a personal preference. The first recipe is a Buttermilk Rusk recipe and the second one is a Walnut and Dried Fig recipe. If I were to have the buttermilk rusk I would go with coffee instead of tea and visa versa with the walnut and fig rusk. You can make these rusks look rustic just for you and your family or you could make them nice and edgy for a High Tea party on a Sunday Afternoon.   

Buttermilk Rusks:  (this is for a large batch, they are easily stored in an air tight container or glass jar.) 

Ingredients 

• 1.5 kg Plain White Flour
• 400g Sugar 
• 20g Honey
• 375g Soft Butter 
• 4 Large Eggs 
• 500ml Buttermilk
• 1 tsp Salt 
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 
• 4 Lavender Sprigs (If you would like, you could use this for a nice High Tea party as well) 

Method

1. Place the flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl and then add the butter, start to rub the butter into the dry ingredients till it resembles sand.
2. Mix all your wet ingredients together and give it a good whisk so everything is well mixed together (if you're using lavender, place butter milk and lavender into a pot and place onto medium heat. Once it starts to simmer remove from heat and allow to infuse for 20 minutes. Once 20 minutes have passed strain butter milk and allow to cool before adding to the other ingredients). 
3. Now add your wet ingredients to the butter and flour mix and knead till you have a smooth dough.
4. Take a large shallow oven tray and grease well with butter ( should be about 3 cm deep).
5. Now take enough dough to fill the whole tray about 2 cm high, flatten with your hands so its even through out the whole tray. 
6. Now using a knife, cut rusks of 1 cm by 3 cm (or which ever size you prefer). 
7. Place into preheated oven of 180˚C/356˚F for 45 minutes or till golden brown.
   
8. Once ready and out of the oven, allow to cool,  then cut rusks again and place onto wire cooling racks. Place back into preheated oven of 100˚C/212˚F (or the lowest temp your oven can go) for  6 - 8 hours (over night if lower than 100˚C) 
   
9. The final product should be completely dried out and hard, perfect for soaking up some coffee or tea. 

Walnut and Dried Fig
Ingredients

• 1 kg Plain White Flour
• 375 g Soft Butter
• 250 g Walnuts (roughly chopped) 
• 200 g Dried Figs (roughly chopped) 
• 3 Large Eggs 
• 300 g Sugar 
• 50 g Honey
• 200 ml Buttermilk
• 200 ml Milk
• 1 tsp Salt 
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

Method 

1. Place the flour, sugar, walnuts and salt into a mixing bowl and then add the butter, start to rub the butter into the dry ingredients till it resembles sand.
   
2. Mix all your wet ingredients together as well as the figs and give it a good whisk so everything is well mixed together (allow for mix to stand for 5 minutes just so that the figs re hydrate a little bit). 
3. Now add your wet ingredients to the butter and flour mix and knead till you have a smooth dough (while you knead you might find that the walnuts and figs tend to fall out, don't worry about that just stick them right back in). 
4. Take a large shallow oven tray and grease well with butter (should be about 3 cm deep).
5. Take enough dough to fill the whole tray about 2 cm high, flatten with your hands so its even through out the whole tray. 
6. Now using a knife, cut rusks of 1 cm by 3 cm (or which ever size you prefer). 
7. Place into preheated oven of 180˚C/356˚F for 45 minutes, or till golden brown.
   
8. Once ready and out of the oven, allow to cool, then cut rusks again. Place onto wire cooling racks and place back into preheated oven of 100˚C/212˚F (or the lowest temp your oven can go) for  6 - 8 hours (over night if lower than 100˚C) 
   
9. The final product should be completely dried out and hard, perfect for soaking up some coffee or tea. 

Edited by: Monique Boaventura