Caramel Chocolate Fondant
James Morton's indulgent caramel chocolate fondant is the ultimate dinner party dessert. The texture of a brownie, with a gooey caramel sauce. What could be better?
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Introduction
An awesome dessert. The chocolate fondant is not something you want to press down upon and find it springs back at you. You want it raw and as gooey as possible. Yes, it’s in the brownie section. That’s because this is made more like a brownie than any other cake – honestly, it’s dead easy. You can even keep them for months in the freezer, in their moulds and ready to bake and everything. My one tip here is to be liberal when greasing your ramekins or bowls, for any sticking will ruin the look of your dessert.
You can miss out the caramel to make this a plain and pure version. Other variations include adding chopped nuts through your fondant, as with brownies. You can also add orange zest into your mix, then serve with whipped cream flavoured with a few drops of orange blossom water.
Ingredients
| For the easy caramel sauce: | |
| 75g | unsalted butter |
| 100g | light brown sugar |
| 50g | golden syrup |
| 125g | double cream |
| 1 tsp | flaked sea salt |
| For the mixture: | |
| 150g | salted butter, plus extra for greasing |
| 150g | dark chocolate |
| 150g | caster sugar |
| 3 | medium eggs, plus 3 egg yolks (don’t waste the whites, make meringues or macarons) |
| 100g | plain flour |
| 50g | cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting |
| ice cream, to serve |
Essential kit
You will need small ramekins if you wish to bake small fondants.
Method
For the caramel sauce:
Weigh your butter, sugar and syrup into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Stir all the time with a wooden spoon until everything has melted.
Bring to the simmer, then remove from the heat and add the double cream and salt. Stir everything to combine. Your sauce is now ready, but watch you don’t burn yourself. You can reheat it if it becomes too solid.
Once cooled, place into ice cube moulds and freeze.
Watch James make his caramel sauce in our YouTube tutorial video:
For the mixture:
Heavily grease your ramekins (or a deep ovenproof dish if making a large fondant). And I mean heavily – loads of butter, please. Then dust each one with cocoa powder, coating the sides fully and passing any excess onto the next ramekin. Put these in the fridge to chill.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a microwave, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whilst they’re melting, whisk your sugar, eggs and yolks in a bowl until combined.
Add your chocolate mixture into your eggy mixture and whip together. Then add the flour and cocoa powder and fold in gently until combined. Your mix is now complete. Divide it between your prepared moulds, add a caramel ice cube into each (so that it is just covered) and place in the fridge for at least half an hour (an hour if it’s one big fondant). You can freeze them at this point for up to a month. There’s no need to thaw, just bake from frozen.
Whilst they’re in the fridge, preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6. When the fondants have cooled, place them on a baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes – you want a light crust to have formed on top when you press. If not, bake another 2 minutes, no more. If you’ve made a big one, you want to bake for at least 20 minutes.
You might need to loosen the fondants at the side before plating up – do this gently so they don’t fall apart. They should just tip out. If they don’t, very gently pry them out. Serve immediately, with ice cream.
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