Decadent delights
Home » Latest issue » Good, issue 18 » Decadent delightsThis beautifully simple chocolate tart can be served at a fancy dinner party or as an easy family dessert
Simple chocolate tart
Use a high-quality 70 percent cocoa chocolate – and look for the Fairtrade logo. See our story on Fairtrade chocolate for more.
Sweet pastry
- 350g unsalted butter
- 150g icing sugar
- 4 free-range egg yolks
- 50ml water
- 500g plain flour
Filling
- 500g Fairtrade chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa) broken into pieces
- 3 free-range eggs
- 200ml milk
- 350ml cream
- 1 vanilla pod (plus the seeds scraped out)
Blind baking is when you pre-bake a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Do this by lining the inside of your pastry case with baking or butter paper and weighing it down with dried beans, which help to hold the shape of the pastry as it cooks.
Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment until the mixture is soft and white. Add the egg yolks and beat in. Add 25ml water, then the flour and mix till combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the rest of the water and mix for 2–3 minutes.
Remove the pastry, cover or wrap in a floured cloth and chill for at least one hour or overnight. Butter and flour a 12-inch tart tin with a removable base. Roll out a circle of pastry 5mm thick to fit the tin. Place the tart tin in the fridge and chill for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and blind bake the pastry case for approximately 15 minutes. Let the pastry rest for ten minutes, then place it back in the oven for a few more minutes to brown the base of the tart. Remove from the oven and cool. Trim any excess pastry from around the pie rim.
To make the filling, preheat the oven again to 180°C.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water. Combine the milk, cream, vanilla seeds and pods in a pot and bring them to the boil.
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and pour the slightly cooled milk and cream mixture over the eggs while stirring. Pass this mixture through a fine sieve over the chocolate and stir together.
Pour the chocolate filling into the blind-baked tart base, place it in the oven and turn the oven off. Leave in the oven for 40–45 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.
