Bitter Sweet Chocolate Tart

Ingredients

• 50ml milk
• 125ml double cream
• 50g caster sugar
• 200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 5ml brandy
• ½ × sweet pastry

Preparation Time: 15 minutes (+ 40 minutes for the pastry)
Cooking Time: 55 minutes
Serves: 4

Method

1. Make the sweet pastry.
2. Heat the oven to 170°c.
3. Once it has chilled, line your 2cm deep tart tins with the pastry and trim off any excess. Keep the trimmings.
4. Scrunch up some greaseproof paper, loosely line the pastry with it, fill the greaseproof paper with baking beans or rice and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. After the 20 minutes, take the pastry cases out of the oven and carefully remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper in case it has stuck to the pastry. If any cracks have appeared around the edge of the pastry, plug the holes using the excess pastry trimmed off earlier.
6. Put the tart cases back into the oven for 5 minutes, then remove them from the oven and turn the oven down to 100°c.
7. Put the milk, sugar and cream into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring it up to the boil. Break up the chocolate into a large mixing bowl. When the milk and cream mixture has started boiling, pour it into the large mixing bowl, over the chocolate.
8. Gently stir the mixture until all of the chocolate has completely melted. Keep stirring until the mixture has turned smooth and glossy.
9. Pour in the egg and again, gently mix it until it is completely incorporated. Then pour in the brandy and gently mix that in. The aim when stirring all of these ingredients is to avoid mixing in any bubbles of air.
10. Pour the chocolate mixture into a pouring jug and then pour it into the pastry cases until it comes up to the brim.
11. Put the tarts into the 100°c oven and bake them for 30 minutes.
12. When the tarts have cooked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool to room temperature.
13. Serve, we served it with whipped double cream and a chocolate tuile.

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Useful Information

Can it be frozen? No.
Can it be prepared in advance? Yes, it can be finished up to 4 days in advance if kept in the fridge.
Will leftovers be nice? Yes, for up to 4 days if brought up to room temperature.

Notes