Coffee-crusted dark chocolate tarts with hazelnut shards

10 February 2015 - 13:47 By Sunday Times Food Weekly
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Who doesn't love chocolate? These wickedly delicious chocolate tarts would be the perfect ending to a romantic dinner

Serves: 8

Pastry:

240g (2 cups) cake flour

15ml (1 tbsp) instant coffee granules

250g butter

1 extra-large egg yolk

Filling:

250ml (1 cup) fresh cream, plus extra to serve

10ml (2 tsp) coffee beans, roughly chopped in a blender

250g dark chocolate (or use chilli-flavoured dark chocolate) broken into pieces

Hazelnut shards:

200g (1 cup) sugar

30g blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Method:

1) For the pastry, combine the flour and coffee and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and use a round-bladed knife to bring the pastry together, adding a little cold water if necessary.

2) Roll out and use to line a 20cm flan tin or individual heart-shaped tins. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cover with greaseproof paper, weigh down with baking beans and bake blind in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes. Remove beans and paper and bake pastry cases for another 5-8 minutes.

3) For the filling, bring the cream and coffee beans to a gentle simmer. Remove from the heat, allow to cool completely, then strain. Return cream to pan with chocolate and heat gently, stirring till chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 minutes before pouring into pastry cases. Cool completely.

4) For the hazelnut shards, melt the sugar in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and without stirring and cook till brown. Remove from heat and add the hazelnuts, swirling the pan without stirring. Pour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and set aside. When cool, break into shards and use to decorate the tarts.

5) Serve the tart with extra whipped cream.

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