fondants

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.

  • coulis
  • macerate cherries in brandy

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

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By Denise, ago

The 89th Bake: Paul’s Chocolate Volcanoes

delicious ooze with cream

It’s getting close to Christmas, only 7 days to go.  A bit frightening really with so much to do.  It’s a good time to put your feet up, take some time out for yourself if you can, take a bath, take a deep breath, take a walk, because all this stress isn’t good.  I like to try to do everything well in advance because I know just before the big day I’ll be making the dishes I’ve been assigned which this year are: trifle, cheese loghttps://thebakersdozenbakeoff.com/2018/11/21/cheese-log/ and cevichehttps://thebakersdozenbakeoff.com/2018/09/10/ceviche/ and be caught up in the mad rush.  Being organised hopefully will help but well rested too, hopefully. 
        Anyway this decadent little treat popped out at me from the page and not having any specific reason to make it didn’t stop me.  If you’ve never made a fondant, give it a go.  It’s fun though stressful waiting those 8 minutes for the puddings to cook and then pulling them out at just the right moment to get the gooey centre. Here is Paul’s recipe https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/chocolate_volcanoes_37330

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By Denise, ago