Recipes: Chocolate fondant

Chocolate fondant

MasterChef guru John Torode shows us how to create this classic pud, step by step

  • 4 tbsp cocoa
  • 50g white chocolate (Green & Blacks is good)
  • 200g 70% dark chocolate
  • 200g butter , plus extra for the moulds
  • 4 whole eggs , plus 3 yolks
  • 90g golden caster sugar
  • 25g plain flour

    Method

    1. Lightly butter 8 x 150ml pudding moulds. Spoon some cocoa into each and turn to coat the inside right up to the rim. Tap out the excess cocoa, you just want a thin dusting. (pic 1).
    2. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Gently melt the white and dark chocolate with 200g butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Don't let the bowl touch the water, or it will get too hot and could cause the chocolate to seize (go grainy).
    3. Put the egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar in a bowl and sit over another pan of simmering water. Whisk with electric beaters until the volume has increased and the mix is thick, pale and fluffy. It will leave a trail behind when you lift up the beaters. (pic 2)
    4. Stir the flour into the chocolate mixture until it disappears, then fold the chocolate into the egg mixture. Don't worry if you knock air out of it, you want to get the chocolate really well mixed in.
    5. Pour into the moulds leaving a space of about 1 cm at the top for the puds to expand. (pic 3) Put them onto a baking sheet and cook for 9-10 minutes. The puddings will have formed a crust on the top and start to come away from the side of the moulds. Leave to stand for 30 seconds before turning out onto serving plates. Serve with cream if you like.

    TryJohn's tips

    The secret to getting a perfect fondant is all about the preparation. You really need a light film of butter, just enough so the cocoa will stick. Make sure you whisk the eggs properly over heat so they start cooking and there's absolutely no raw egg flavour left. The finished pud is then more of a cooked chocolate mousse - you only add a tiny bit of flour to bind it.

    PER SERVING

    527 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 31,1g, fat 42 g, saturated fat 22,9g, fibre 1,9g, salt 0,54 g