A fruity and fun spin on the traditional milk or dark chocolate version, these white chocolate and cherry fondants are deliciously beautiful desserts. The centres should be gooey enough to flood the entire cake with melted chocolate, so be careful not to overbake them. Golden and tart chocolaty heaven!
Recipe by Illanique van Aswegen
White chocolate and cherry fondants
Ingredients
- 110g white baking chocolate, finely chopped
- 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 210g (1 cup) castor sugar
- 4 eggs
- 80g cake flour, sifted
- a pinch of salt
- 12 fresh cherries, pitted and halved
- good quality vanilla bean ice cream, to serve
- fresh cherries, to garnish
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously grease 4 x 125ml (½ cup) dariole moulds or ramekins with cooking spray, ensuring that every part of the mould is properly greased.
Heat the chocolate and butter over a double boiler until melted.
Using an electric whisk, whisk the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Whisk in the flour, salt and melted chocolate mixture. Stir in the pitted cherries.
Pour the mixture into the moulds, filling them up three-quarters of the way. Place them on a baking tray before putting them into the oven.
Bake for 16 minutes. Be careful not to overbake them as you still want the centres to be runny. Let them stand in the moulds for 3 minutes and then unmould onto serving plates. Serve with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
Notes
Cook’s tips: Turn the fondants into a stylish plated dessert by topping each one with a dollop of crème fraîche and a drizzle of melted cherry jam. Fondants are quite tricky to get right due to different oven temperatures and cooking times, and may take practice.
