Quite often, people will ask me what makes a chef different from any other cook, and I usually reply that it’s the ability to work repeatedly, in large quantities and at speed.

It’s one thing to come up with a fantastic recipe and make it at home, but to serve it in a restaurant it needs to be replicated under stressful conditions many times a day, in exactly the same way each time.

I’ve said it many times; there’s no real magic to chef-ing; it’s just the ability to turn all that mental creativity and knowledge into an efficient production line.

Given the opportunity, most of us can be just as creative at home, and that’s what I consider to be the real fun of cooking; the open bag of groceries, the trip to the market, the butcher’s recommendation.

We’re encouraged to go down new paths, or to riffle through our mental Rolodex of familiar classics to adapt to new ingredients.

Chefs are generally very good at being able to change things on the hoof. It’s a familiar situation where the delivery guy turns up at the back door and says “Sorry, no scallops today” or “Couldn’t get you any parsnips” and you just have to find a way of working round it creatively. You use those mental data banks to think of substitutes or novel dishes; anything to avoid the awkwardness of simply saying “Sorry, that dish isn’t available today”.

All of which brings us to today’s business. This week, I’d been thinking of a different recipe, which swiftly turned into the one we’re baking today.

The other week, out of nowhere, I remembered a favourite biscuit from my childhood. I wonder if any of you remember them too. They were longish cookie-style biscuit slabs, a bit like digestives, topped with two rows of little blobs of pink meringue separated by a line of jam, the whole thing dusted with desiccated coconut.

A little Googling tells me they were sometimes called Mikados, though that doesn’t ring a bell at all. The slightly less glamorous ‘Jam Mallows’ sounds more like the ones I remember, and it seems they can still be found, though for the keen biscuit spotter they are a rare sighting; the bullfinch of the biscuit world.

And you’ll know me by now – once I get one of these biscuit bees in my bonnet, there’s no stopping me. I had to have a go at it myself. It was as I made my first notes that I thought of changing things slightly. I’d been thinking of using a different jam, cherry, in the middle, and suddenly things all clicked into place.

Whenever I think of cherries, I think of the classic Black Forest Gateau and its wondrous combination of flavours. The tartness of cherries, the luxury of chocolate, the warmth of vanilla.

Black Forest Gateau.

Well, in an instant, my mind had turned the biscuit into a chocolate version, like an Oreo or a Bourbon base, and I’d visualised two different marshmallows, one cherry-flavoured and bright pink, the other a vanilla-flecked cream colour.

Add to this a stripe of cherry jam, and replace the now unnecessary coconut with some toasted almonds and there’s our Black Forest marshmallow sandwich, conjured out of thin air.

I still want to have a go at the coconut version I remember so fondly from my childhood, but when you taste one of these very grown-up dark versions, I’m sure you’ll agree that this little diversion is worthwhile.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE BISCUITS:

230g butter, melted and cooled

150g unrefined golden caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

1 fresh free-range egg

215g plain flour

90g cocoa powder

1 tsp Maldon salt

½ tsp baking powder

FOR THE CHERRY JAM:

2 tbsps cherry jam

A splash of lemon juice

FOR THE ALMONDS:

50g chopped almonds

FOR THE MARSHMALLOWS:

3 sheets leaf gelatine

150g caster sugar

1 tsp liquid glucose

70ml water

1 small egg white

2 drops vanilla extract

Cherry flavouring

Red food colouring

EXTRAS:

Piping bags & nozzles

METHOD:

First, quickly toast the almonds. Under a hot grill, or in a medium oven, toast the chopped almonds, turning often, until they become deeply golden and fragrant. Set to one side.

To make the jam filling, heat the cherry jam with a little lemon juice and pass through a non-reactive sieve to make a smooth sauce. Refrigerate until required.

For the biscuits, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, and allow to cool back down to room temperature. In a large bowl, whisk together the cooled butter, the sugar and the vanilla extract until soft and smooth. Pour in the cool melted chocolate and then the eggs, and whisk until incorporated. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into another large bowl, add the salt, and fold in the liquid chocolate batter until the mixture starts to come together into a soft-looking dough. Bring it together with floured hands, wrap in clingfilm, and allow the dough to chill for 20 minutes or so in the fridge. Heat the oven to 170ºC / Gas 3.

The dough should now be workable - add a little flour if it’s still a bit sticky. Roll it out on a well-floured surface to about ½cm thickness, and cut out biscuits approximately 9cm by 4cm. Lay them on trays on baking parchment, leaving a few centimetres between each biscuit. Chill for about an hour, then bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they are firm to the touch. Allow to cool slightly before removing to a cooling rack or trivet.

For the marshmallow, soak the gelatine in 50ml cold water, turning occasionally to make sure it gets completely soaked through and jellified. Put the sugar, glucose and water into a heavy-based saucepan. Bring the liquid to the boil and bubble until the mixture reaches 127ºC or hard-ball stage on a sugar thermometer. Remove from the heat, carefully slide in the gelatine and its water and stir to mix.

In a mixer, set the egg whites whisking, and when they reach a firm peak, slowly pour in the syrup. The egg will start to become thick and glossy. Split the mixture in two. Add the vanilla extract to one mixture and whisk until amalgamated. To the remaining half, add the cherry flavouring and enough red colouring to make a pretty pale pink mixture.

Pipe onto the bottom halves of each biscuit in an alternating pattern. Pipe or spoon a little jam down the centre of each biscuit, sprinkle over a little of the chopped almond, and pop on a lid. Allow the marshmallow to cool and set before serving the biscuits.