Some folks live a lifetime and never experience France. Some of the best things in life can be experienced here. The delicious foods and wines, designer stores and quaint markets, art and architecture, and the list goes on. On a trip earlier this year I tasted what I thought might have been the best dessert ever. As my intriguing tale goes, I was in Avignon and stumble across a little restaurant called Le Verso. It was about a block off of Place de Horloge and served up an Italian cuisine with a hint of provence. My friend and I order our favorite Italian dishes as we would at any Italian restaurant and sipped our glass of wine while we waited. We began to notice the beautifully displayed dishes that started emerging from the kitchen. Every dish was masterfully presented with such care and attention. The parade of beautiful dishes ended with our meals coming to rest on our table. We were not disappointed and I enjoyed a tasty dish of Lasagna with green salad that was dressed with a yummy house vinigarette. My friend was treated to a pizza that was thin, crispy and served hot out of the brick oven. As we ate and tasted each others meals, we couldn’t decide which one we liked better. What we did know was that if our meal was this good we must try the dessert. I ordered the moelleux chocolate and my friend ordered the Lavendar crème brûlée. When they arrived we were involved discussing our plans for the next day and jumped right into the dessert without much thought. My friend immediately tasted her crème brûlée and remarked on how different it was since we would probably never think of including lavendar in such a wonderful dessert. It was definately a welcome treat. As I was anxious to taste my chocolate dessert, I took a fork filled with the brownie like substance into my mouth. I was surprised to find it warm with a molten chocolate center. Now I am not a huge chocolate fan, but with one taste I knew I had tasted something very special indeed.  I savored this melt in my mouth temptation with every bite. I wanted to take pleasure in every lasting mouthful and make it last. My friend remarked that I did not even finish the last sips of wine or water. To wash down the taste of such a deliious treat some how seemed like a crime.

Like most travelers, upon my return I told family and friends of my travels and this dessert. Of course I think it might lose something in the retelling of the experience and I even began to wonder after a while if I was remembering this lucious dessert or perhaps just exaggerating it in my mind. Well, as fate would have it, I had another opportunity to travel to Provence and knew I would have to make it back to Le Verso. So, the first evening back in Avignon I went back to see if my memory was serving me correctlyand I am happy to report that I was not disappointed.

Here is a recipe for all of you that may not get to France. Bon Appetite!

Moelleux Chocolate

Ganache
125gr raspberries, fresh or frozen
100gr black chocolate (about 67% cocoa content)
30gr cream

Dough
250 g soft butter
100 g dark chocolate (67 to 72% cocoa)
220 g fine caster sugar. 
4 medium eggs
70g flour

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Place the chocolate in a bowl floating in a pot of hot water. Melt slowly, making sure no water enters the chocolate bowl. Crush the raspberries in a kitchen mixer. Filter the raspberries through a sieve to extract 100gr juice. Heat in a small saucepan and add the cream. Mix the chocolate with the raspberry juice and cream and whip slowly, without adding any air, to combine the ingredients intimately. You have just made a very light ganache [gah-nash], the mixture used by chocolate makers to stuff their chocolates.

Now for the trick that makes this incredible dessert possible. Slowly pour the chocolate-raspberry ganache through a funnel into an icecube bag. You could also use an icecube tray. When there is no more ganache left in your funnel, push the ganache down the bag with your fingers so that each cell is equally filled. Tie or use adhesive tape to close the bag and place in the freezer.

While the ganache cores hardens up in the freezer we’ll prepare a very wet biscuit dough. Work the butter with a spoon until it is soft. Work the sugar into the butter. Melt the chocolate like explained above and add the to the sugar-butter mixture. Add the eggs and mix. Finally add the wee bit of flour this recipe calls for. As you can see, this is a very wet dough. Buy the best raspberry jam you can find, if possible with the seeds. Here is one I buy from a lady at my local farmer’s market who makes it with her own raspberries.

Heat the oven to 170°C and take out a wire rack. Bring the icecube bag out and check for hardness. You can use small cake pans but I prefer muffin pans, so that each guest receives his own moelleux. If you have a pastry bag fill it with the biscuit dough and fill each muffin pan to about a third of its height. You can also use a spoon to fill the pan but it will be longer and more messy. Carefully place one teaspoon raspberry jam in the center of the third-filled pans. Cover with a ganache ice cube.

Finish with the remaining biscuit dough to cover the icecubes. It quite crucial for the icecube to be placed right in the middle for if it does not you will have a hole – see hereafter. Bake in the oven for about 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave for about 10 minutes to cool before you unmold. Now is the most crucial moment. You have to make sure the ganache filling will neither escape from the top nor from the bottom. Unmold on foil or a plastic sheet.

Cut the foil around the moelleux and carefully lay them on individual serving plates. When done, remove the foil by sliding it carefully from under the moelleux.

Do you have a favorite French dessert?