Chocolate Cardamom Torte
Serves: 12 - 16 people
Takes: 30 mins to 1 hour
Ending your meal with something chocolatey is one of life's little pleasures.
You can add any flavourings you like such as ginger, cloves and cinnamon but I've added my favourite spice cardamom. 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.
Ingredients
25 cm tart tin
375g ready made sweet shortcrust pastry pack, thawed if frozen
few tablespoons plain flour, for dusting
good pinch cinnamon powder
600ml double cream
12 green cardamom pods, roughly bash the husks (add more if you really love it)
450g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
6 egg yolks
Method
Sprinkle some plain flour over your table top and carefully roll out the pastry so that it is around 5mm 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 the tin is lined. 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 down and relax the gluten for about 30 mins.
Preheat the oven according to the pack (usually 200°C/400°F/gas 6). 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 3 - 5 minutes or until a light sandy colour.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool, but keep in the tin.
In the meantime, reduce the oven temperature to 150°C/300°F/gas 2.
Gently boil the cream with the green cardamom pods.
Put the chocolate into a heat proof bowl. Once the cream has come to a boil, sieve it over the chocolate. Leave it for 2 - 3 minutes before gently whisking it together to form a glossy mixture.
Whisk through the egg yolks.
Trim off the excess pastry from the tart tin making sure the base is still smooth.
Pour in the chocolate mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Leave to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into slices.
My Tip: I like to serve it with a good dollop of creme fraiche with some cocoa powder dusted over.
