CHOCOLATE TART WITH PINE NUT PASTRY

Ahh chocolate, Ohh chocolate or just chocolate, you decide! For a long time now I've been contemplating making a tart! A chocolate tart! You see the thing being, i just love to cook with chocolate, i like the mess- i like messy things, not just any old mess but gooey, sticky high calorie mess, the kind of mess that only chocolate can provide! But the problem being, i don't really like eating chocolate i don't know why but I'm more of a savoury kind of guy. All is not lost though as i seem to be surrounded by an ever increasing supply of chocolate testers, always at the ready with spoons and open mouths.

Admittedly my chocolate making skills are put to good use around valentines day. When brownie points are needed for the coming year to secure the much coveted Beer tokens for the coming months- but beer tokens aside this is really a special tart! With Febuary around the corner i might be making this again! After my small slice i was tempted to pilfer the rest and stash it somewhere safe, somewhere only i knew! Now that is unusal for a savoury toothed guy.

Now the good part i am going to tell you how to make this! But first a little on the pastry, the pastry recipe is from The french laundry cook book, a recipe i have used on several occasions when the need to impress arises. The dessert that this wonderful pastry hails from is a Lemon Sabayon tart with pine nut crust, another of Thomas Keller's delightful treats. Having cooked the lemon tart last week, and with two batches of excess pastry in need of use, a chocolate tart seemed the right choice! An excellent marriage between nutty pastry and dark chocolate, rich with a biscuit base that softens and cuts through the richness - kind of like eating a giant chocolate digestive.

THE RECIPE;

Pine nut pastry;

2 cups 10 oz pine nuts

1/3 cup of sugar(approx 75g)

3 cups of plain flour

8 oz/250g of unsalted butter at room temperature

1 large egg

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Butter and flour for greasing the tin

Pulse the pine nuts in a food processor, then add the sugar and flour, Pulse again until the nuts are finely ground. Place this mixture into a mixing bowl, add the softened butter, egg and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate all ingredients. Divide the pastry into three parts and wrap in cling film. Place one quantity of pastry into the refrigerator and freeze the other two for future use, if not using within the next 24 hours. Using a 9" tart tin with a removable bottom, grease with butter and a light dusting of plain flour then place in the fridge until needed(approximately 10 minutes). Pre-heat the oven to 180c, when the oven is ready remove the pastry and the tin from the fridge. Mould the pastry into the tart tin with your fingers making a uniform thickness throughout, trim the pastry from the edges with a knife and place into the oven for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes turn the tart tin 180 degrees to allow for uniform cooking. Remove after allotted cooking time and allow to cool while you make the chocolate filling. Turn the oven down to 100c.

THE CHOCOLATE;

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

55g vanilla sugar(caster sugar is fine to use)

250g dark chocolate(55% cocoa solids is used in my recipe)

200g unsalted butter

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large bowl over a saucepan of boiling water(take care not let the bowl touch the water), once melted reserve. Starting again with cold water, place a large heatproof bowl over the saucepan and add the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla sugar and whisk till light and fluffy(approx 10 minutes). Remove from the heat and pour the egg mixture into the melted chocolate and butter. Fold this mixture in from the edges to return to a deep brown colour. Once the mixture is completely folded into itself, pour into the reserved tart tin and return to the oven for ten minutes. Remove and allow to cool, once cool place into the refrigerator until fully set. Eat and Enjoy, without trying to think about the coronary inducing amounts of butter!

WHAT BETTER TIME TO INDULGE IN AN IRRESISTIBLY CHOCOLATY TARTY ! JUST SAY NO, " OH GO ON JUST ONE SLICE" NO NO NO! I SHALL NOT SUCCUMB TO TEMPTATION, OH JUST ONE SMALL SLICE THEN"