Espresso Yourself

After a calm start to our Sunday, it’s time to wake up. Yes…it is coffee time! Here is a double shot of caffeine for you with a CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE ESPRESSO TART, which is supposed to look like this when it is finished:

This recipe was from a supermarket magazine, but I have no idea which one. I cut it out because the recipe looked fabulous! There are essentially three stages to this tart…the pastry, the filling and the decorations. Here are the ingredients I used for this decadent dessert:

PASTRY

• 175g plain flour
• 80g icing sugar (sifted)
• 100g chilled butter (cut into cubes)
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1tbsp vanilla extract

FILLING

• 1tbsp instant coffee (I just happened to pick up French Vanilla coffee because it sounded so delicious)
• 300ml double cream
• 25g golden syrup
• 50g butter
• 75g dark chocolate (finely chopped)
• 75g milk chocolate (finely chopped)

DECORATIONS

• 150g dark chocolate
• icing sugar (to dust with)

It’s been a while since I made my own pastry (I usually cheat and buy puff or shortcrust pastry from the supermarket). I can’t remember making pastry in a food processor before, but not one to argue with a recipe, I followed the instructions.

First of all I put the 175g flour and 80g sifted icing sugar into my food processor and pulsed it briefly. Then I added the 100g chilled butter to the food processor and pulsed the mix until it looked like fine breadcrumbs. Then I added the egg yolk and vanilla extract before pulsing again. Before my eyes the pastry started to combine together into a dough.

I did add a teaspoon of water as I thought the pastry was a little bit crumbly. Then on a lightly floured surface I pressed the pastry dough into a disc and wrapped it up in cling film. I put it into the fridge for half an hour to chill.

In the meantime I preheated the oven to 160°c fan (180°c without fan). I took the chilled pastry out of the fridge and rolled out on a lightly floured surface. Then the pastry went into a fluted flan/quiche tin. I pricked the base with a fork and chilled it in the fridge for another ten minutes.

After another chilling, I placed baking parchment over the pastry and poured baking beans over the top. Then I placed it into the preheated oven and baked it for twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes I removed the baking parchment and baking beans and returned the pastry to the oven for another eight minutes. By this point the pastry was golden and felt slightly sandy.

Now that the pastry was ready, it was time to prepare the filling. I forgot to take a photo of the first step, which is to place the 1tbsp of instant coffee granules into a pan with 1tbsp of boiling water and stir them together.

I then added the 300mil of double cream and the 25g golden syrup. As per the recipe, I brought that mixture to the boil while stirring occasionally. Then I removed the pan from the heat and added the 50g of butter and the finely chopped chocolate (75g dark chocolate/75g milk chocolate). Then I went about stir stir stirring until I had a glossy smooth chocolately mix.

I then poured the chocolate mix into the pastry case (which was still in the tin by the way) and chilled it in the fridge overnight.

The following day, it was time to decorate the chocolate tart. The recipe said to take 150g dark chocolate and place in a bain marie (heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water). Once it was melted I poured it onto a flat baking sheet.

I then placed the baking sheet into the fridge for ten minutes. The chocolate was still quite soft so I put it back in the fridge for another fifteen minutes.

Then…with a large knife I pulled curls of chocolate. There were lots of curls as you can see!

Then heaped the chocolate curls on top of the chocolate truffle espresso tart and dusted with some icing sugar.

I took the tart with me when I went to see some friends for a small garden party they hosted for some of their NHS friends they wanted to do something for. My friends were very very pleased with this tart. It was rich though! Very rich. Thin slices of tart for all of us. It had a lovely strong coffee flavour which complimented the chocolate perfectly.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! The coffee is just what we need to wake up on our Sunday morning!

Time to shake off the sleepy eyes and tired limbs…there is so much in store in todays line-up on THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF!