Desserts Recipes - Chocolate Peach Puffs Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 75 g/3 oz white or plain dark chocolate, broken into pieces

• 4 small ripe peaches or nectarines

• 375 g/12 oz Flaky Pastry or frozen puff pastry

• 1 beaten egg, to glaze

• icing sugar, for dusting

• grated chocolate, to decorate (optional)

• single cream, to serve

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Method:

1. Grease and lightly dampen a baking sheet. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave until melted.

2. Halve and stone the peaches, then slice them very thinly. Rollout the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface and cut out four 12 cm/5 inch rounds using a small bowl or saucer as a guide.

3. Place the pastry rounds on the baking sheet. Spoon the melted chocolate on to the pastry, spreading to within 2.5 cm/1 inch of the edges.

4. Arrange the peach slices in an overlapping circle over the chocolate. Make small flutes around the edges of the pastry with the back of a knife.

5. Brush the pastry with a little beaten egg. Bake in a preheated oven, 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6, for 15 minutes until the pastry is golden.

6. Dust the pastries with icing sugar and place under a preheated hot grill for 1-2 minutes, watching closely, until lightly caramelized. Leave to cool slightly, then decorate with grated chocolate, if liked. Serve with single cream.

Note: These quick and easy little pies can be made using white chocolate or, for those with a less sweet tooth, luxury plain dark chocolate.