Lovely

By popular(ish) request: Toffee Truffle Bombes. I have no idea about the quantities in cups and tablespoons - sorry. It sounds like a terrible fiddle but in fact it doesn't take up much cooking time - though you need to allow time for cooling, freezing etc.

You need for the toffee bit:
150g or 5oz toffees - but actually I use fudge
150ml or quarter pint milk (I used full cream milk but have used semi-skimmed also)
150ml or quarter pint double cream, ie cream that you can whip
and then for the chocolate bit:
another 150ml or quarter pint double cream
150g or 5oz plain chocolate, in bits.

The original recipe says to put the toffee in the freezer to make it brittle and then to chop it into little bits. But don't! I got Mr L to do this the first time. It took a lot of effort and Mr L and the kitchen ended up covered in tiny fragments of toffee. Very very sticky. So I now use fudge, which can be chopped in seconds and stays on the plate. You put the fudge in a saucepan with the milk and heat this slowly till the fudge is melted - see picture above. Let it cool and put it in the fridge to chill.
 

Then you whip the 150mls of cream softly, as above, and fold in the chilled fudge mixture, as below.

Then you put it in the freezer till it's solid: 1 - 2 hours.

Meanwhile you make the chocolate part by heating the other 150mls of cream in a pan till it's at boiling point, taking it off the heat and adding the chopped chocolate, so that it melts. Put in fridge to chill.

Ideally, you've left the toffee stuff longer than I did (which was about an hour - two would be better). In any case, you take it out of the freezer, beat it briefly and then spoon it into freezer-proof ramekins or cups. If it's amenable, then you make a hollow in the middle (for the chocolate layer) but this time mine was a bit soft and didn't co-operate. But it didn't matter. Then you put the cups in the freezer for 30 minutes...

 

... and then spoon the chocolate goo on top of the fudge layer (or in the hollow you left in the fudge bit, if you did). Then put them back in the freezer for as long as you like. 20 minutes before you serve them, move them into the fridge to soften very slightly.

 

When you want to serve them, float the cups briefly in hot water and run a palette knife round them to unmould the bombes, chocolate side down. You can sprinkle flaked chocolate or whatever on the top if you want to be fancy. I thought of taking a picture of the final effect but our friends were sitting there and it's quite hard to explain to a non-blogger why you're taking a photo of their pudding... .

 

They're very nice but not at all healthy - though we had strawberries with them, which of course cancelled out all the calories.

 

And this is a picture of the other grandmother and Grandson appreciating a book about Spot the Dog's birthday. Isn't he lovely too?