Ending your meal with something chocolatey is one of life’s little pleasures. This recipe brings together two of my favourite ingredients – chocolate and pastry. You can add any flavourings you like such as ginger, cloves and cinnamon, but I’ve added my favourite spice, cardamom, because I simply love it! And if you fancy making your own sweet pastry then by all means do, but to keep this simple I’ve used ready-made pastry.
Serves 12-16 people
Ingredients
• 25 cm tart tin
• 375 g ready made sweet shortcrust pastry pack, thawed if frozen
• Few tbsp plain flour, for dusting
• Good pinch of cinnamon powder
• 600 ml double cream
• 12 green cardamom pods, roughly bash the husks (add more if you really love it)
• 450 g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
• 2 tbsp milk
Preparation
Sprinkle some plain flour over your table top and carefully roll out the pastry so that it is around 5 mm thick. It should fit the size of your tin with a little extra to hang off the sides, trying to roll it the same thickness throughout.
Using your rolling pin, gently pick up the pastry and lay it over the tart tin and ease it in, lightly pressing it into the sides so that your tin is lined and there are no cracks. If you find there are cracks, then use some of the excess pastry to fill them. I don’t like to trim the pastry yet as it may shrink in the oven.
Sprinkle the pastry with cinnamon powder and pop in the fridge to chill and relax the gluten for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven according to the pack. Bake the tart blind for 12-15 minutes by scrunching up a large piece of greaseproof paper and laying it inside the tart tin.
Fill with baking beans and pop in the oven.
After the time is up, carefully remove the paper and beans and bake on its own for three to five minutes or until a light sandy colour. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, but keep it in the tin.
In the meantime, make the chocolate filling. Heat the cream with the green cardamom pods until just about to boil.
Put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Remove the cream from the heat and sieve it over the chocolate. Leave it for two to three minutes before gently whisking it together to form a glossy mixture. Stir in the milk.
Trim off the excess pastry from the tart tin making sure the base is still smooth.Pour in the chocolate mixture and allow to set before removing from the tin and cutting into slices.
Anjali’s tip: I like to serve it with a good dollop of crème fraiche with some extra cinnamon dusted over.