Choc-peanut fondants with chocolate soil & cherries
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Choc-peanut fondants with chocolate soil & cherries

By Sarah Cook

Chocolate soil is a big restaurant trend at the moment – serve alongside your melting-middle pud for serious wow factor

  • Prep:40 mins
    Cook:50 mins
    Plus chilling
  • Serves 6
  • More effort

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 802
  • fat 42g
  • saturates 17g
  • carbs 91g
  • sugars 72g
  • fibre 5g
  • protein 14g
  • salt 0.6g

Ingredients

  • 50g butter, softened, plus extra melted butter for greasing
  • cocoa powder, for dusting
  • 85g crunchy peanut butter
  • 175g golden caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs
  • 85g plain flour
  • 300g dark chocolate, broken into chunks and melted
  • big jar cherry compote
  • 6 scoops vanilla ice cream, to serve
  • 6 cherries with stalks, to serve
  • 1 bought chocolate loaf cake (un-iced), about 250g

Tip

Choosing the right chocolate: Milk
Milk chocolate contains far fewer cocoa solids – around 20-40%. The aromatics won’t be as prominent as they are in dark chocolate, so just choose a bar that you like the taste of.Choosing the right chocolate: White
White chocolate contains no cocoa solids – it is made from cocoa butter, milk powders and sugar. White chocolate is hard to melt and often seizes when heated. In the Test Kitchen, we’ve found that the cheaper varieties of white chocolate are much less temperamental, and best for cooking.Choosing the right chocolate: Dark
If your recipe requires dark chocolate, look for one with over 68% cocoa solids – the higher the percentage, the more intense the flavour will be. Chocolate that comes from a single origin (such as Madagascar or Ghana) is often of high quality, each origin being praised for producing different flavours and aromas, as a good coffee would be. Most supermarkets stock their own single-origin chocolate, which is great value and often supported by The Fairtrade Foundation.

Method

  1. Make the soil first. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Thinly slice the chocolate cake and lay on baking trays lined with baking parchment. Bake for 30 mins, turning the slices halfway, until crisp to the touch. Put in a food processor and whizz to crunchy crumbs. Will keep well for up to a week in an airtight tin.

  2. Make the fondants by brushing 6 dariole moulds well with melted butter. Chill for 1 min, then brush again. Put a spoon of cocoa powder in one and shake about so the whole inside is coated, then tip out the rest into the next and tap the bottom of the dariole to get out any excess. Repeat with all the darioles.

  3. Beat together the softened butter, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla to cream them, then beat in the eggs, followed by the flour. Stir in the melted chocolate and divide between the darioles. Chill for up to 24 hrs.

  4. To serve, heat oven to 200C/180C fan/ gas 6. Bake the fondants for 10-12 mins – the top will be set, but you should feel a soft middle when you prod it. Add a small pile of soil to each plate and top with a cherry – or put the soil in a mini bucket or flowerpot. Add a spoon of cherry compote to each plate and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Finally, carefully turn each chocolate fondant out onto the plate – they should come out easily. Serve immediately.

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