Coffee Chocolate Fondants

I have a soft spot for chocolate fondants and seeing them made on Masterchef during the week reminded both N and I just how long it's been since we made any (maybe 3 years?!).

This is a Curtis Stone recipe which we found on the UK Good Food Channel website. My notes are in red.

Coffee Chocolate Fondants
Serves 4 (just 4 serves would have been ENORMOUS - there was enough mixture for 8 generous serves using 1 cup ramekins)

250 g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids broken into pieces
250g Butter
30g instant coffee (we had a 50g jar of Moccona and it seemed excessive to use more than half the jar! So we only added a few teaspoons and could barely taste it)
5 Eggs
5 egg yolks
125g Sugar
75g plain flour, sifted

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, suspended above a pan of simmering water.

2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the melted chocolate and butter. Add the coffee and stir until well-blended.

4. In a separate large mixing bowl, ideally using an electric whisk, whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy.

5. Pour the egg mixture onto the chocolate mixture and whisk together until smooth.

6. Add the flour, whisking until well-mixed.

7. Transfer the chocolate mixture into 4 (8!) well-buttered ramekins or dariole moulds, cool and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

8. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas 6.

9. Bake the chilled fondants for 10 minutes. (Ours needed 12 minutes and probably could have done with another minute or 2 to make them easier to remove from the moulds. Next time would grease and also line the bases of the remekins with baking paper as the centres stuck a little). Serve warm from the oven.

The taste test ...

In a word - decadent. Not something you'd want to eat everyday but as a treat it was absolutely divine. Rich and smooth with a deep chocolate flavour boosted by the coffee. The middles were fabulously oozy! Perfect served with a big scoop of vanilla icecream.