Kevin Dundon

THIS WEEK it's all about chocolate - though chocolate is delicious all year round what better time than Easter to prepare this enticing gooey centred chocolate dessert. This recipe can also be used when entertaining too as it can be prepared in advance and left uncooked in the fridge overnight.

My Guinness Ice-Cream recipe is best suited to an ice-cream maker, but if you don't have one you can always pour the mixture into a plastic container and place in the freezer, it does need to be stirred or agitated every half an hour or so, otherwise you will end up with large ice crystals, which will not give the soft scoopable ice-cream that you desire.

My top tip for a chocolate sauce it the perfect accompaniment to this dessert, don't be too tempted to use leftover Easter Eggs, sometimes the quality of the chocolate will make the sauce have a grainy texture.

Happy Easter!

CHOCOLATE FONDANTS WITH GUINNESS ICE CREAM

(Serves 4) 110 g butter 200 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces 3 eggs, separated 110 g caster sugar 30g plain flour Pouring cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Generously butter 4 pudding basins or ramekins. (using 25g) Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and whisk in the remaining 85g of butter until melted. Set aside.

Place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until stiff peaks have formed. Whisk in half of the sugar, a third at a time, whisking well after each addition until stiff and very shiny.

In a separate bowl, beat the remaining sugar and egg yolks until pale and fluffy, then beat into the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the sieved plain flour. Fold in the meringue and use to fill the prepared individual basins two-thirds full.

Arrange on a baking tray and bake for 12 minutes until well risen but still with a slight wobble in the middle. To serve, leave to settle for a minutes and carefully invert on your serving plate.

ICE CREAM

1 pint Guinness 1 pint cream 1 vanilla pod-split lengthways 6 egg yolks 6oz/175g caster sugar

Put the Guinness into a large saucepan and allow the entire mixture to come to the boil. Reduce it until you are just left with approximately 150ml liquid.

Put the vanilla pod and the cream onto a medium heat and bring to the boil. Once boiled remove from the heat and allow to infuse with the vanilla. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and then add in the vanilla infused cream (having first removed the vanilla pod)

Return the entire mixture to a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring continuously until the egg custard has thickened (i.e.: coats the back of the spoon)

Remove from the heat, pass through a fine sieve and whisk in the reserved Guinness from earlier on.

Churn in an ice cream machine or in the freezer.

“What better time than Easter to prepare this enticing gooey centred chocolate dessert?”