Recipes

White chocolate parcels with berries, thyme and mint (4 people).

You will need: 4tbs single cream, 1 vanilla pod, 150g white cooking chocolate, 1 gelatine sheet, 1 egg, 50g type 00 flour, 50g caster sugar, 50g butter, 2 strawberries, 4 blackberries, ½ tsp mint and literally just a few thyme leaves.

Pre-heat oven to 170°C. Make the biscuit batter by melting 50g butter and then adding 50g type 00 flour, 50g caster sugar and 1 egg and mix until very smooth.Add 1tbs at a time of the biscuit batter to a greased baking tray and cook for about 10 minutes (or until the edges are slightly brown and the centre golden). Shape the biscuits while hot (but be careful as it can burn) into parcels by placing them on top of a wine bottle and gently trying to fold in half, pinching the sides. It is very easy to tear the biscuit so take your time and be gentle. Repeat 3 more times to create 4 biscuits.

Bring a pan of water to a simmer and place a bowl above (make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Add 150g white chocolate to the bowl and melt over the water. When melted, add 4tbs single cream. Slice open a vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds and add the seeds to the chocolate. Add a gelatine leaf to water and leave for 3 minutes, then add 1 pre-soaked gelatine sheet to the chocolate and mix well. Remove from heat.

When the chocolate has cooled and has almost set, spoon 2 - 3 tsp into each biscuit parcel. It is important the chocolate is not too runny or it won’t fill the parcel, it will just leak out. To serve, cut 2 strawberries into quarters and chop 4 blackberries into halves. Add 2 quarters of strawberry and 2 halves of the blackberry to each parcel and then the mint and thyme leaves. Sprinkle over icing sugar.