Chocolate coffee fondant puddings recipe

These chocolate coffee fondant puddings are a real cheat's dessert - easy and speedy, but they look and taste great.

The secret to this melting middle pudding is not adding a liquid core to the middle of the pudding, but cooking it for only just long enough for the outside to become a sponge. The middle remains soft and oozy. You can make chocolate fondants with a more classic sponge recipe - fewer eggs and extra flour. However, this recipe, with half a dozen eggs in, is much richer and the molten middle is more unctuous and luxurious. This is a really great dinner party standby recipe, for when you need a quick pudding that won't drag you away from other hosting duties.

Ingredients

• 125g 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 medium eggs
• 3 medium egg yolks
• 2 tbsp coffee dissolved in 3 tbsp hot water
• 60g caster sugar
• 145g plain flour

Method

1. First grease and then line 4 metal 175ml pudding bowls with 7.5cm round of parchment paper. This prevents the base of the pudding from sticking.
2. Break the chocolate into a small heatproof bowl and add the butter. Place bowl over a pan of boiling water without letting the bowl touch the water and stir gently until it has a smooth, melted consistency.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, coffee, egg yolks and sugar together using an electric whisk until the mixture is pale and frothy and the whisk leaves a ribbon-like trail on the surface of the mixture. The mixture should treble in volume.
4. Gently mix the melted butter and chocolate into the mixture.
5. Using a spatula, fold in the flour into the mixture gently and carefully, until just combined. Use a gentle, folding movement to avoid knocking any air out of the mixture.
6. Chill the puddings for 20 minute and pre-heat your oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
7. Place the puddings onto a baking tray and cook for 7-8 minutes or until a crack just starts to form on the top of the sponge.
8. Invert onto a serving plate and serve immediately.

Top tip for making chocolate coffee fondant puddings

You will need six eggs for this recipe - three whole and three yolks, which means you are left with three whites. Don't discard them - even if you don't intend to use them straight away, you can freeze them. For ease, put each on in a separate compartment of an ice cube tray. You can use them later to make meringues (opens in new tab) or coconut macaroons (opens in new tab).

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