Growing up with an English mother, dessert in our house often consisted of bowls of piping hot custard, maybe with some stewed apples, sometimes without. To this day, I love custard. Beautiful home-made custard eaten either hot or cold. Dessert rarely consisted of anything with chocolate (well, from what I can remember anyway).

I wonder if this is one of the reasons why I'm not a huge chocolate dessert lover. I find them too rich and always end up regretting eating them, so I tend to just avoid them altogether.

So why choose a dessert titled

"Totally Chocolate Tarte"

to serve at my recent birthday dinner? Who knows. Your guess is as good as mine.

Totally Chocolate Tarte

Cookbook:

Trish's French Kitchen

Author:

Trish Deseine

For the pastry

250g plain flour

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

200g butter, very cold, cut into pieces

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water

For the Chocolate Cream Filling

200ml double cream

300g best quality dark chocolate

3 egg yolks

40g unsalted butter

Pastry

- put all the dry ingredients in a food processor with the butter. Whizz for a minute or so until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then make a well in the centre and pour in the egg yolks. Bring together with a wooden spoon and press with your hands to form a ball. Cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before using.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Roll the pastry out on a cool surface and use it to line either a circular tin 28cm diameter or a similar sized rectangular tin. Prick the pastry base with a fork.

Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until it is crispy around the edges. Remove and cool completely before filling.

To make the filing

- heat the cream until it's almost (but not quite) boiling. Break the chocolate into pieces in a heatproof bowl, then pour over the cream and stir well. Add the egg yolks and butter and stir again.

Pour the mixture into the pastry case and chill for 3-4 hours until it is set.

I was a little concerned about the pastry whilst it was cooking as it really puffed up in the oven. It also felt very cakey instead of feeling like pastry. The good news is that as it cools, press it down to flatten and it goes back into shape nicely. It also hardens so it's nice and crisp when you add the filling.

Once the worry about the pastry was in the past, this tarte was a real joy to make and I think looked visually appealing (especially for any chocoholics out there).

Extremely rich, so only a slither of a slice is needed - it's how the French say to eat it anyway.

Great little recipe to have up your sleeve.