Mascarpone Amaretti Cups

Preparation time: 20 minutes. Serves 6 people (depending on the size of the cups)

It's time for a nice yummy dessert - easy to make, absolutely delicious to taste! I would recommend to prepare it for an after lunch or dinner.

You will only need:

- 150 gr Mascarpone cheese

- 100 gr Icing Sugar

- 3 eggs

- Shaved dark chocolate

- Some brandy

- Amaretti biscuits

Mix the egg yolks with the icing sugar (ops, sorry for the wrong sugar in the picture!) until you obtain a creamy light mixture. Add the Mascarpone and mix a bit more.

In another bowl, mix the egg whites until they reach a somewhat firm peak. When your egg whites get fluffy...STOP! If you overbeat them, they will liquify again. Then Shave the dark chocolate as shown below.

Add the whipped whites and the shaved dark chocolate to the creamy mixture previously prepared. Gently stir with a spatula from the bottom to the top of the bowl, so that the whipped whites don't liquify.

Your cream is ready!

Add the cookies to a medium bowl and stir in the brandy or any other dessert liquor (just until moistened, you don't want them soggy). It's time to get a cup or a glass. Divide the Amaretti into the bottom of 6 glasses (4-5 Amaretti per glass). Add the cream and top with a roughly shaved dark chocolate. Believe me, this is as good as a well-prepared Tiramisu'!

Can it get better than this?

Chocolate fondant...what else?

Preparation time: 10 minutes for the preparation, 8-10 minutes for cooking.

Details: approx. €10 to serve 15 fondants

A.k.a. "How to kick off a chilly-but-dry weekend in Dublin", the chocolate fondant is a simple but sensational dessert. 

This recipe has all the requirements to be declared as the perfect dessert recipe: simple, fast, no weird ingredients, you can prepare it in advance and above all, it's with CHOCOLATE.
The only important thing is that you have to know your oven very well, in order to get the right consistency: a little bit crunchy on the side, but exceptionally warm inside.




So, take out from the sideboard:

• 200 gr. of dark chocolate (70%)
• 180 gr. of butter
• 40 gr. of flour
• 4 eggs
• 160 gr. of sugar
• cupcake moulds

Directions: 

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in bain-marie. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together, adding the flour in the end.
Add the melted chocolate to the mixture and use a wooden spoon to blend it well, until you have a smooth cream.

Put the cream into the moulds, previously greased with butter and floured (if you are using silicone or paper moulds you don't need to use butter and flour). Fill the moulds for 3/4 and either:

• cook them immediately (180°, for 13 minutes - ventilated oven)

or

• freeze them and keep them for whenever you want to serve them. You can put them in the oven still frozen and the result will be exactly the same.

As I mentioned before, the only complicated part is when you cook them. In order to keep the centre soft and warm, you need to take out the fondants from the oven as soon as you see little cracks on the top:

Garnish them with red fruits, mint leaves and serve them!