COOKBOOKS GALORE

Usually I stay well away from recipes for a chocolate fondant, having seen so many failures on Masterchef! My friend made these as dessert recently and I just had to make them. The family came for lunch on Sunday, so this was a good opportunity to try them. 100g white chocolate  + 4 extra squares 1 rounded tbspn flour 50g butter 30g caster sugar 2 eggs preheat oven 200C                   Grease and flour 4 ramekins Melt the 100g chocolate and butter over simmering water. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl, then add the melted chocolate and flour and mix together. Fill each ramekin half full then drop in a square of white chocolate and add more mixture to fill. Bake for 8-10 mins. Carefully remove the fondants from the ramekins. Guess who took the photo? Not me! My daughter decided to add the finishing touches, some cream and blueberries, oh, not forgetting the sprig of mint! The chocolate doesn't make the f...

I needed a quick tart as a dessert to take to a get together. This is one of Mum's recipes so I've added metric in brackets. It's just a variation on a treacle tart. 8oz (225g) shortcrust pastry 4oz (100g) golden syrup 1oz (25g) unsalted butter grated rind of 1 lemon 3 tablespoons of double cream 1 egg Preheat oven 200C/gas6                      7" or 17.5cm flan tin Roll the pastry out and line the tin. Prick the base and bake blind for 15 mins. Reduce oven to 180C/gas4 Warm the syrup till it's runny, then take off the heat and add the butter and lemon rind and stir together. Beat the cream and egg together and mix into the syrup. Pour into the pastry case and bake for about 30 mins. Serve warm with some cream or vanilla ice cream. It hasn't got the breadcrumbs like the usual treacle tart. Supposed to have been a favourite of Charles Dickens! Nice crumbly pastry and a soft filling with a hint of lem...