French Chocolate Dessert Recipes

Chocolate Goes with Everything

If you are looking for chocolate in French cooking, you don’t have to look very far to find it. Chocolate shows up in croissants, folded into crepes, served up in a loaf like a Marquise, spread over cakes as a ganache, rolled into balls to make a truffles, and snuck into every recipe imaginable. With French chocolate dessert recipes like Financier cake and chocolate soufflé, you can have a taste of a Paris café in your own kitchen anytime you like.

French Chocolate Dessert Recipes

Not every French chocolate dessert recipe is as easy as a truffle but they are not always as complicated as they appear when you serve them. I studied under a pastry chef who was fond of saying “Life is complicated, soufflés should be simple,” which sounds amazingly charming when it is spoken with a French accent. In the end, she was right: soufflés are simple, they just take a careful touch and a little practice. Serve these with a small amount of Crème Anglaise on the side.

Chocolate Soufflé

This makes 6 3-ounce ramekins

• 1 1/2 ounces of bread flour
• 1 1/2 ounces of butter (plus extra to grease the ramekins)
• 8 ounces of milk
• 2 ounces of sugar (plus extra to dust the ramekins)
• 4 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites at room temperature
• 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 ounce of sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over a medium heat.
3. Add the flour and cook until the flour is pasty but does not have any color, about two minutes should be long enough. This mixture should be pale.
4. In another pan, heat the milk and the 2-ounces of sugar and bring just to a boil. Remove from the heat.
5. Add the flour mixture to the milk.
6. Return the milk to the burner and bring to a boil again, stirring constantly, until smooth and slightly thick.
7. Whisk in the egg yolks.
8. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture and stir until completely dissolved.
9. Remove from the heat and let cool.
10. Lightly butter the ramekins and then lightly dust them with sugar.
11. Whip the egg whites and 1-ounce of sugar to stiff peaks.
12. Pour the mixture into the ramekins, almost to the top, leaving about a ¼-inch of room.
13. Bake for 20 minutes.
14. Remove carefully from the oven and let cool slightly.
15. Dust with confectioners sugar before serving. (Optional)

Financiers Cake

There are several different ways to make and fill this cake. I like to fill it with whipped ganache and then pour ganache over the top of it, making each slice euphorically chocolaty.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ sticks of butter
• ½ cup of all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 6 egg whites at room temperature
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of finely ground, blanched almonds (you can just get blanched almond slivers and run them through the food processor)
• 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped into rather smallish bits

For the Ganache

• 12 ounces of semi- or bitter-sweet chocolate
• 12 ounces of cream

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter or spray with non-stick spray two 8-inch round cake pans.
3. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
4. Spray again with non-stick spray.
5. Using a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and let it cook until it is light brown.
6. Remove from the heat.
7. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into a bowl.
8. In a large, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and sugar to a medium peak.
9. Whisk in the corn syrup and vanilla.
10. Slowly add the flour mixture, whisking very gently.
11. Add the almonds, whisking it in gently.
12. Fold in the brown butter and chocolate bits.
13. Pour the batter into the prepared pans evenly making sure the tops are smooth and the batter is well-evened out.
14. Bake the cakes for 20 –25 minutes until they test done.
15. Let the cakes cool for ten minutes before removing them from the pans.
16. Remove the cakes from the pans, remove the paper from the bottoms, and let them cool completely before frosting.
17. Using a Bain Marie, gently heat the chocolate and cream for the ganache, stirring occasionally.
18. Once the ganache is smooth, turn off the flame. Pour half of it into a bowl and leave the rest over the warm water so it stays warm.
19. As the ganache in the bowl starts to cool, whisk it occasionally so it has a mousse-like texture as it comes to room temperature.
20. Once the whisked ganache is completely cooled, spread it over the top of one of the cakes.
21. Place the second cake on the first cake. Make sure they are aligned.
22. Place a cooling rack in a half sheet pan or cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.
23. Place the cake in the center of the rack.
24. Carefully pour the melted ganache over the cake, letting it flow over all the sides.
25. Let the cake cool in the refrigerator until the ganache is set.

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