Recipe: lukewarm chocolate cake

Jonathan Zandbergen, chef of Michelin-starred restaurant Merlet, wrote a beautiful cookbook with a surprising element: a fifth season. He concludes the book with this wonderful chocolate cake: ‘A filling that is just firm enough to slice and has the texture of a crème brûlée. Feel free to vary with different types of chocolate, as long as they contain at least 68% cocoa. This is honestly one of my favourite cakes’.

How to make the lukewarm chocolate cake

• Boil the unopened can of condensed milk in a pan with plenty of water for 2 hours.
• Turn the can every 15 minutes.
• Mix 100 g of the condensed milk caramel with 3 egg yolks.
• Bring 250 ml of whipping cream and the milk with the Jerusalem artichoke slices to the boil in a pan.
• Cook gently for 20 minutes, purée until smooth and mix with the caramel-and-egg mixture.
• Return to the pan and bring to the boil while stirring.
• Bring the rum to the boil and add it.
• Leave the mixture to cool and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
• Stir every 15 minutes with a whisk until the ice cream is firm.
• Bring 500 ml of whipping cream to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted.
• Beat 6 egg yolks with 75 g sugar in a bowl.
• Stir in the chocolate cream.
• Leave to cool.
• Beat 150 g butter with the brown sugar until light and airy.
• Mix in the whole egg and 1 egg yolk.
• Add the cocoa nibs.
• Stir in 300 g flour and mix into a dough.
• Leave the dough to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
• Roll out the dough until it is slightly larger than the springform pan.
• Grease the springform pan with butter and dust with flour.
• Line the cake tin tightly with the dough.
• Place baking paper in it and fill with baking beans.
• Bake the base blind for 15 minutes.
• Remove the baking beans and baking paper and bake for another 3 minutes.
• Leave the base to cool.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 120 °C.
• Spread the chocolate mixture over the base.
• Bake the cake in the oven for 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
• Cut the cake into wedges with a warm knife and serve with a quenelle* of Jerusalem artichoke ice cream.

*A quenelle is an egg-shaped scoop made using 1 or 2 spoons. Practise the technique first with whipped cream and surprise your guests with a restaurant-worthy presentation.

Title: Five Seasons
Author: Jonathan Zandbergen
Publisher: Carrera Culinair
Price: €31.99

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