The children and I spent Sunday afternoon with a friend (and her children) baking fondant au chocolat. The recipe asked for 150g of chocolate and I bought a packet containing 180g. Instead of using 150g from the 180g packet my friend suggested using the whole lot so I wouldn’t waste anything—which meant that I had to change the amounts of all the other ingredients too. I’m not one for messing around with the quantities—if I have more chocolate than I need I’ll usually slip the remainder into my mouth or tip all of it into the bowl—but she told me that to make French desserts the quantities have to be exact and that changing the quantities of the ingredients in a recipe isn’t difficult to do at all (I thought it was until she showed me how).

The recipe called for 150g chocolate—I had 180g chocolate. To find the quantity of butter to match the proportion of the 180g chocolate, she multiplied 180g (the amount of chocolate I had) by 125g (the quantity of butter called for in the recipe) and then divided the answer by 150g (the quantity of chocolate called for in the recipe) which came to 150g of butter. She calculated all the other ingredients by the same method. Compris? (Take note of the handwriting—all the French write their numerals and letters same way. I can tell a French hand anywhere.)

Paris and Chase helpd me make fondant au chocolat again on Wednesday (Paris and Chase have no school on Wednesday). Paris helped butter the ramekins, stir the chocolate and butter, and beat the eggs and sugar. Chase licked the spatula.

Egg and sugar, chocolate and butter, and sifted flour.

Cook at 180 degrees celsius for thirty minutes.