The process of "tempering" involves slowly heating and then cooling chocolate letting the fat molecules crystallise evenly, giving you a smooth, shiny finish. When tempered properly, chocolate should 'snap' when broken, while untempered (or badly tempered) chocolate will be dull and not break cleanly. 

What is the best chocolate for tempering?

Always use chocolate that state a higher cocoa content. Look for 'buttons' rather than bars, because they melt more easily. If you can only find bars, finely chop the chocolate with a serrated knife, or in a blender, as this will melt more evenly.

How to temper chocolate

1. Put most of the chocolate in a bowl, keeping up to 25% for use later in the process. Half-fill a saucepan with hot water, and put the bowl over it, making sure that the bowl does not touch the bottom of the saucepan. Slowly heat the water, ensuring it does not boil. Alternatively, use a microwave on the defrost setting or at 500W maximum. Stir all the time, using a flexible spatula so that the chocolate melts smoothly.

2. Check the temperature with a thermometer. When it reaches 131F - 136F (55C-58C) for bittersweet/dark, or 113F - 122F (45C-50C) for milk or white, remove the chocolate from the water bath.

3. Set aside a third of the melted chocolate in a bowl in a warm place. Add the unmelted chocolate into the remaining two-thirds of the melted chocolate, stirring constantly (this will help cool the chocolate quickly). Dark chocolate should reach a temperature of 82F - 84F (28C-29C); milk chocolate should reach 80F - 82F (27C-28C); and white or ruby chocolate should reach 79F - 81F (26C-27C).

4. Then add the melted chocolate that you have set aside to increase the temperature. Dark chocolate should reach 88F - 90F (31C-32C); milk chocolate should reach 84F - 86F (29C-30C); a white or coloured chocolate should reach 82F - 84F (28C-29C). Stir all the time. 

5. When the chocolate is at the correct temperature, leave it in a cool place to set.

Tip: If the chocolate has reached the right temperature and there are still pieces of unmelted chocolate, remove them before increasing the temperature. 

In the debut episode of Series 15 of The Great British Baking Show, we saw Christiaan making "Umami Apple Loaf Cake". The umami came from using miso in both the cake batter, and from a layer of apple miso fudge.

Miso adds a savory, but complementary, note to many sweet dishes. Shiro miso, also known as white miso, and saikyo miso are good choices for miso fudge because they're sweeter and milder than other varieties.

This turns out to be a really interesting question. 

Halwa, as it is found in South Asia, is a a pudding-like mixture made in its most basic form from a combination of: 

• ghee

• sugar or jaggery

• some form of flour (or lentils, or noodles, or starchy vegetables)

Halwa is cooked over a stove top until thick and creamy, and eaten with a spoon.

Halwa is in the same class as, but very different from, Halvah or Halva or Helva or Helava!) which is Persian or Arabic in origin and simply means a sweet, semisolid fudge that can be made from practically anything but traditionally has sesame as a dominant flavour. In Greece and Turkey, halvah is usually made from semolina and honey. 

You can make cherry paste by soaking the cherries for 1 to 2 hours or until quite soft. Strain and reserve the liquid. Transfer cherries to a high-speed blender and process until smooth. Add some of the reserved liquid back to achieve the consistency you need.

Alternatively, you can buy cherry paste here, but it's not cheap. 

What is linseed?

Linseed is a small seed, typically reddish-brown or golden-yellow. It comes from the common flax plant and is also known as flaxseed.

Linseeds add marked dietary fibre to the diet, so be careful in the quantity added to food. This seed is a laxative.

Culinary grade linseed oil has a rich, buttery taste and is useful to add richness to dishes.

How to cook linseeds

Whole or ground linseeds do not need to be cooked and can be added to almost any dish, including breads, biscuits and cakes, snack bars, and even to curries and vegetable stews. 

Linseed and flaxseed oils should never be used for cooking as they have a very low flash point and can easily burst into flame. Instead, mix linseed oil with other oils in dressings for salads and vegetables.

Linseeds are also a great binder, and work really well as an egg replacer in lots of recipes. Add 1 tbsp milled linseed to 2 tbsp water and leave to swell before adding to cakes and biscuits to bind ingredients together as an egg would.