Bitter Chocolate Truffle Torte.

Two weekends ago I made dinner for some work friends for a belated birthday celebration. I'm always using said friends as (fairly willing) guinea pigs for whatever new recipes that might have caught my eye, but since it was meant to be a nice dinner party and I wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally poison them or serve them slop, I turned to a trusted source that has always helped me deliver drool-worthy desserts to the dinner table; Not So Humble Pie. Everything of Ms Humble's that I've tried to make has always turned out pretty perfectly, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with one of her recipes.

I've been eyeing up her Fresh Mint Truffle Tart for a while now, but decided against following the recipe to a tee as I know that some people (crazy people) are not too keen on the mint-chocolate combination. Personally, I think these people are nuts, but I decided to omit the mint flavour from my torte and just make a really bitter, chocolatey version instead. The recipe I'll post here is very much Ms Humble's recipe, but with the few minor edits that I made.

I was lucky enough to have a good friend take these gorgeous photographs for me at dinner (how I regret not insisting that he was there to document the baking process!). Thank you, Jason! 

Crust:
60g icing sugar
130g plain flour
25g good quality cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
113g cold unsalted butter

Filling:
300g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), chopped
177g semi-sweet chocolate (minimum 56% cocoa solids), chopped
290g double cream
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

First, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease an 11" tart tin with a removable base, then place it into the freezer. This isn't always necessary, but it makes a difference when you're making proper pastry (especially delicate ones like shortcrust pastry), or if you live in a hot, humid country (like I do).

Next, whip out your trusty old food processor. I have to admit, one of the things that really made this recipe appeal to me was just how easy to make the crust sounded. How easy, you ask? Well, this easy...

Pop all the dry ingredients for your crust into your food processor and give them a good pulse. Cut your cold butter into small pieces and add them to the food processor. Blend the mixture until it forms a fine crumb that just holds together when pinched between your fingers.

Pour the crumbs into the tart tin you prepared earlier, and press them down until they are firmly packed into the tin. Bake the crust for 15 minutes, then leave to cool completely.

Start on your filling while waiting for the crust to cool.

Put your cream in a saucepan and bring it up to a simmer. Take it off the heat and let it cool down just a little bit; while waiting, start chopping your chocolate. Once chopped, add the chocolate, warm cream and the butter to a heatproof bowl or small saucepan, which should then be placed over another saucepan of simmering water (a makeshift double-boiler, basically). Make sure your bowl is over the water and not in, as you don't want it to get too hot.

Stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has emulsified into a smooth, glossy ganache. Pour the ganache into your cooled crust, then place the whole tin into the refrigerator to set (which should take a few hours).

I decorated it with a sprinkling of cocoa over the top and served it at room temperature with a good dollop of vanilla ice-cream. It went down a treat with my guests and was a rather decadent end to dinner. 

Thanks to the lovely Ms Humble for allowing me to blog the recipe. Hopefully I'll have an excuse to try it again...but with mint next time.

Plum & almond tart.

I know, I know... I've been pretty terrible at updating; I do apologise for that. However, in my 'absence' I have made a few things that will be making an appearance on the blog in due course.

To start, I have an adaptation of a recipe from Gregg Wallace, the jovial pudding-loving half of my favourite Masterchef UK judging duo. I found this recipe on BBC Good Food's website (one of my go-to sites for new recipes) and it seemed fairly straightforward.

The original recipe calls for peaches, but I couldn't find any good ones and so I decided to go with plums instead. It turned out alright and was well received by my test subjects, but I'm not entirely sure if perhaps I didn't slice them thinly enough or if plums are denser than peaches as I had a bit of a 'sinkage' issue when placing my plums on top of my almond filling.

Since I made this a couple of weeks ago when being attacked by a chest infection, I decided to be a little lazy and use the rather foolproof pate brisee recipe (see Blueberry Pie post) rather than making a more delicate pate sablee shortcrust pastry.

Anyway, here we go (and I also apologise for the minimal photos).

1 portion of pate brisee
2 eggs, beaten
140g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
140g butter
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 plums, sliced

First, prepare your tart tin. I always grease my tin with a little butter and then place it in the freezer for about 15-30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan oven).

Once your tin has been prepared, line it with your thinly rolled out pate brisee. Line it with greaseproof paper or foil and weigh down the centre with baking beans (dried, uncooked rice or beans also work). Bake for 15 minutes then remove the foil/paper, brush the inside of the tart with an egg wash and bake for a further 15 minutes, until the pastry has begun to firm up to an almost biscuit-like, crisp texture.

While waiting for your pastry to cook, make the filling. Cream together your butter and sugar until the mixture has become fluffy and pale in colour. Beat in the eggs and your vanilla essence, then sift in your flour and fold in your ground almonds.

Spoon the mixture into your pastry case and arrange your plum slices in a pattern.

Return the tart to the oven for a further 30-40 minutes until golden and the almond filling has set and is fairly firm to the touch. The mixture shouldn't seem too wet, nor should it be too dry and hard- it should still have a little give.

Serve at room temperature or still warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or tangy Greek yoghurt (I definitely recommend the latter).