Lately I have noticed to many confusion between classic dishes so I  want to place a little order into terms connected with the culinary world, this time I want to reference the difference between  the “classic soufflé”  and the “chocolate fondant” for the reason that many young chef and restaurant confuse between the two and tend to refer to te choaocolate fondant as as souffle .

here is an example of a  soufflé  (my work) :

here is an example of a chocolate fondant (recipe is below):

In many establishment that i have visited , it was  very common to find   a warm chocolate cake (known as chocolate fondant / volcano cake) with a molten center—most of the time it is presented under the name “chocolate soufflé,” or sometimes “chocolate volcano,” or even more rarely under the name “chocolate fondant.”

In practice, it is referencing a dessert with a texture that reminds us a little of sponge cake with a liquid texture in the middle—in France, conventional wisdom claims that the invention was all thanks to the well-known chef Michel Bras, but…

Until the late 1980s—and it is possible to find this information in a variety of encyclopedias—the term chocolate fondant mainly referred to a very melted dessert that was entirely made of glucose, sugar syrup, egg yolks, chocolate, etc. Here is a a great recipe see also photo of result:

For the fondant:

• 200r chocolate
• 200gr butter
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 200gr icing sugar
• 55gr flour T55
• 55gr cocoa powder

Chemisage (mould greasing):

• Soft Butter (recommended 50gr)
• 50gr sugar
• 25gr cocoa powder

Method:

For the Fondant:

• Melt chocolate and butter until smooth in a “Bain Marie” do not boil you can do it in a very low setting I a microwave.
• Mix the egg yolks and eggs with sifted icing sugar and add to the melted chocolate.
• Fold in the cocoa and flour into mix above.
• Brush very well a metal ring or a ramekin (if using a ramekin place a disc of silicon paper at the bottom) with soft butter and sprinkle with coco powder and sugar.
• Cook at 200c for 10 minutes.-garnish ice cream and red fruit coulie or any other sauce that works goes with chocolate.

Michel Bras used the technique of combining two different doughs and playing with temperatures, and here is his classic recipe that was invented in 1981:

http://chefhermes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Recipe-Michel-Bras-Hot-choc-fondant.pdf 

In 1987, the French chef Jean George, who lives and works in New York, claimed that he invented this famous dessert. In practice, he spoke of a similar dessert, only carried out differently, that later became the most popular recipe—a cake composed of one batter, with cooking time that allowed the walls to congeal and to cook and the middle to remain liquid.

As you see Soufflé is a completely different dessert in every way—technique, conception, and texture—here is a link to an article that I wrote a few months ago that is designed to explain the soufflé and how to make it.

hope it helped and thank you for reading

Michael