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Rick Stein’s Chocolate Fondants
Introduction from Rick Stein
These are a bit like sticky toffee pudding in that they never seem to go out of favour. You can make the fondants up to a day in advance and store, covered, in the fridge. You can also freeze them uncooked for up to three months, then defrost them in the fridge and bake. You can also bake from frozen but add an extra three minutes to the cooking time.
Ingredients
Essential kit
4 individual 7cm-diameter aluminium pudding basins.
Method
You will need 4 individual 7cm-diameter aluminium pudding basins. Brush the inside of each one with melted butter and dust with cocoa powder.
Put the butter and chocolate in a bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water. Leave until the butter and chocolate have melted, then stir. Sift the cocoa powder into the chocolate and butter mix and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolks, caster sugar and salt to ribbon stage – until the mixture is thick and pale and the whisk leaves a ribbon trail in the mixture when lifted out (see note below).
Add the melted chocolate mixture to the eggs and fold together. Divide the mixture between the individual pudding basins and chill until required.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C. Bake the fondants for 10–12 minutes until they have risen and the tops are firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool for 2 minutes before running a knife around the top of each basin to release them. Turn out on to each serving plate and serve immediately with ice cream.
Ribbon test
When whisking mixtures such as for chocolate fondants, you need to reach what is referred to as the ribbon stage. To test for this, stop whisking and pass the whisk over the mixture. The mix that drips from the whisk will leave a trail or ribbon that briefly sits on top of the mixture in the bowl before sinking in and disappearing. This is what you are looking for.
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