The Mythical Choclate Fondant

At last, I have made a chocolate fondant. The holy grail of desserts, or at least according to Greg Wallace. Every time someone does this on Master Chef Greg pulls his "I'm not sure he/she's going to pull this off" face. The main thing about this dessert is that you can't prepare anything in advance (bar buying the ingredients), it has to be done while your guests are sitting in the other room have intellectual, stimulating conversations about politics etc. So after a successful main course I repaired to the kitchen to start the fondant. I chose a recipe I had seen made on Glamour Puds (a mid-afternoon Channel 4 program that I caught earlier in the year) that looked relatively straightforward. It was presented by Eric Lanlard, a French Master pâtissier, who makes some incredible cake creations for weddings and all sort of occasions. So I chose his recipe but not the orange sauce, I decided to serve it with a Pomegranate ice cream that I have made before and is very easy and delicious (Nigella strikes again). The recipe was easy to follow, melt the chocolate and butter together, whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy and then add the melted chocolate and flour. This then goes into the prepared mini pudding bowls. There was a bit of a panic when I realised that I didn't have any cocoa powder to line the basins but my boyfriend came to the rescue suggesting I use drinking chocolate instead (worked a treat). Then these little puds go in the oven for 12 minutes, not a second more. It was a bit nerve wracking taking them out of the oven and then out of the basins, hoping that they didn't collapse. The first one collapsed a bit but then all the others came out perfectly. And now the moment of truth, would they be a gooey mess of chocolaty loveliness when we delved in? Oh yes they would. They were yum, a really rich chocolate flavour, spongy on the outside and molten on the inside. Probably a bit too big but I managed to do mine justice. And so I have made my first chocolate fondant (hopefully the first of many) and I think the Greg would have been happy.