What’s cooking today: Scones, and chocolate fondant

Cakes, chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon buns, brownies, doughnuts, even chocolate fondants; all can be cooked in an air fryer. Today we bring you a happy pair of recipes for the sweet tooth — chocolate fondant, and everybody’s favourite: scones, jam and cream. The jam and cream are not cooked in the air fryer, obviously, but the scones and chocolate fondants are.

Scones in your air fryer

(Makes 4)

Ingredients

250 g self-raising flour

24 g butter

40 g sugar

2 egg

120 ml milk

Method

Work the butter into the flour with your fingers until the mixture becomes crumbly.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix to form a ball. Add more flour if the mixture is too wet, or a little milk if too dry.

On a floured work surface, pat the dough down with your palms. Lightly roll it out. Divide into four and loosely (with a very light touch) roll them into balls, then flatten them slightly with your palm. Place each ball into a greased foil muffin tin like those in the photo.

Brush the tops with milk. 

Air fry at 200℃ for 7 minutes. Serve with strawberry or other berry jam and whipped cream.

Chocolate fondants in your air fryer

(Makes 4)

Ingredients

100 g butter

100 g 78% cocoa solids or higher dark chocolate

2 large egg plus 2 egg yolks

120 g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

100 g self-raising flour

Cocoa powder and butter for preparing and dusting ramekins

Method

Brush the insides of ramekins with butter, and refrigerate for 5 minutes.

Break up the chocolate into a metal bowl with 50 g cold butter, in pieces. 

Place the bowl over a pan of mildly boiling water.

When the butter and chocolate have melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir to combine.

Stir in vanilla essence.

Put the egg, egg yolk and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy.

Pour the chocolate and butter mixture into the whisked eggs and sugar and fold with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Sieve the flour and fold it into the batter.

Remove the ramekins (see note below) from the fridge and dust with cocoa powder. Shake out the excess.

Heat the air fryer to 190°C for five minutes. Divide the batter equally between the ramekins. 

Bake for 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove them from the air fryer and run a butter knife around the inside of the ramekins before turning them out.

Serve immediately.

Note that I used ramekins, but with hindsight, foil muffin tins would have been preferable. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.