The 113th Bake: Black Forest Chocolate Fondants

There’s nothing like the smell of fresh herbs and freshly blended tea. I recently bought some tea from the market. One brand appealed to me from Grow Eat Heal. It was called heart & soul, and was full of rosebuds and camomile. Sounded yum and smells delicious. hhttps://www.groweatheal.co.nz/ The other I bought for my husband, called Anxietea. Who doesn’t need a bit of de-stressing in their lives? https://www.bettertea.co/

These teas are the perfect accompaniment to my very rich chocolate fondants which I am very excited to say is my second to last bake. Woohoo.

It’s not that I haven’t loved doing this challenge, but challenge it has been, don’t get me wrong. It has been a huge commitment and a lot of work, fun as it was learning and baking my way through a text book of recipes. But all good things must come to an end and I am looking forward to being free and moving on to the next thing/challenge, whatever that may be. I will still bake and post when I get the chance, or see/make a great recipe that I want to share.

For this bake, Richard’s Signature Bake, I knew I was in for more than one process, they are always a bit more complicated these signature bakes. First I made the coulis. Cherries being out of season, I had to use preserved cherries, never mind. So I boiled together cherries, sugar and lemon juice, and then blended this in a food processor.

I then added brandy to a dozen or so cherries and left these to soak it up! If you’ve never made fondant, you should. It’s not hard or complicated, it’s just the timing of the cooking that’s the important thing to get right. Here’s the recipe in case you are keen! 🙂 https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/richards-black-forest-chocolate-fondants There’s also a link to buy the cookbook in case you are really keen!! So to make the fondants, I

melted the chocolate and butter over a bain marie and set this aside. Then I put the whole eggs and egg yolks into a mixing bowl with the sugar and beat the mixture until it was thick and mousse-like. Then I whisked in the melted chocolate and finally added the flour. Not many ingredients, but it’s how you combine them that makes all the difference.

After adding the flour, (fondants don’t have much flour, less than 100g!) I 1/2 filled the ramekins with the fondant mixture, then placed two brandy infused cherries and coulis in the centre, and spooned more mixture on top. Mmmmmmm little surprises in the middle, yum.

I covered the ramekins with clingfilm and chilled in the fridge until I was ready to bake. Meanwhile I melted some more chocolate and as there are no fresh cherries in the country in Autumn, I decided to make chocolate covered kiwiberries instead. I then added the remaining coulis to the cream and voila, cherry cream all set to go.

I baked the fondants for 11-15 minutes. Very precise because you do want them to have that ooze in the middle. Basically cooked them until the top was no longer raw and they were slightly risen. I flipped them over onto a plate, took the baking paper off the bottom and dusted them with icing sugar. They were eaten in a heart beat. Nothing better. So light and even more delicious with the added coulis and cherries in the middle.