From the cupboard a 80g pack of Willie’s Delectable Madagascan 71 Dark Chocolate. From the fridge a pack of ready-made sweet short crust pastry and from the “samples received” shelf a little pot of French Glacé Cherries from “the sun drenched orchards of Provence”. I can’t help myself and eat a couple of the cherries… rather good.

I am in need of a chocolate dessert to accompany a sample of Maury sent to me by The Perfect Cellar. All the reference books suggest chocolate and chocolate desserts with this “Fortified French wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon”, so I am in mind of making little individual tarts, with frangipane covering the chocolate centre. 80g of chocolate isn’t going to fill many tarts so to bulk it out a little and to add a fruity dimension one of the glacé cherries is placed in each tart first. The chocolate, incidentally, is described as having “juicy notes of summer fruits”; something else I was hoping would match with the intricate flavours of the Maury.

Pastry rolled, cut out and placed in my silicon tart mould. Cherry dropped in the bottom. The chocolate is melted with a large knob of butter and when combined spooned into each tart. There is just enough to lightly fill six tarts.

I make a ton of frangipane. A heaped dessert spoon of the frangipane is slid onto each tart, with the remainder destined to cover tarts filled with mincemeat (a recipe in the latest Delicious suggests this). In the oven for what, 20 minutes or so, and they are done.