Easy chocolate tart recipe

This is such an easy recipe but it tastes sublime!

The base is just 3 ingredients – ground almonds, cocoa powder and butter (which can be substituted for coconut oil if you prefer to make it vegan).

The filling takes up the other 3 ingredients – maple syrup, coconut cream and dark chocolate. (Leave out the maple syrup if you want to make this keto).

6 key steps:

1. melting the butter.
2. mixing in the ground almonds and cocoa powder to the melted butter.
3. pressing the mixture into the baking tin and baking for 10 mins.
4. melting the chocolate, coconut cream and maple syrup  over a bain-marie until thick and creamy and oh so chocolatey!
5. pouring the chocolate mixture onto the base.
6. leave to chill for 6 hrs over overnight until set.

DONE!

No food processor, no mixer, just a pan, a bowl, a tin and a spoon.

When you taste it, you won’t believe how incredibly luxurious it is for such little effort.

I’d say it’s rather healthy for such a decadent dessert too – almonds, good quality butter (I use unpasteurised butter), dark chocolate, coconut cream and very little sugar.

KEY POINTS

• The size of the baking tin I used for this recipe was:  11cm x 35cm (4.5inches x 14inches)
• I used good quality butter which is salted so I did not add any extra salt to this recipe.
• If the room temperature is warm and your coconut cream has not separated in the can, place it in the fridge overnight then scoop out the cream from the top.  I do not normally suffer with this problem living the cooler climate of the UK!
• The coconut cream brand I use always has a lot of cream in the can compared to coconut water.  You need about 300mls of the cream so use 2 cans if your brand does not supply this much cream in 1 can.
• I used good quality 70% organic dark chocolate in this recipe.
• The tarts needs at least 6 hours to set in the fridge – don’t be tempted  into thinking it has set before this time as the top will set first and the middle will still be soft! Be patient 😉 !
• This recipe will provide roughly 18 squares/portions if you cut across the width to create 9 slices and then through the middle lengthways to halve each one, creating 18 in all.  I find this is enough to satisfy a sweet craving as it is quite rich but if you are serving as a dessert, you may want to just cut into 9 slices and serve this size of portion.
• If you would like the base to be of a more firm texture, add 1 TBSP of maple syrup to the base mix.
• Serve this tart alone or with any berries which are in season.
• If you serve straight from the fridge, it tastes more like chocolate ice-cream filling but when left for a short while to come to room temperature, it tastes more like chocolate cheesecake – both of which are delicious of course but just mentioning the serving temperature does affect the flavour!

 

INGREDIENTS

Here is what you will need:

• ground almonds
• good quality dark cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
• butter – at fridge temperature is fine as you will be melting it
• maple syrup
• coconut cream from a can
• good quality dark chocolate 70% solids
• a loose bottomed baking tin/tart tin: 11cm x 35cm (4.5inches x 14inches)

 

Start by melting the butter in a pan over a gentle heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning and turning off the heat as soon as the butter has melted.

 

Add the ground almonds and cocoa powder to the melted butter and spend a few minutes incorporating the ingredients together using the back of a spoon to press down and break up any larger clumps of mixture.  Keep doing this until all of the ingredients are incorporated and it resembles a fine crumb texture.

 

Pour the mixture into the tart tin.  Do not worry if it looks very crumbly at this stage.  You will be compressing the mixture into the tin using the back of a spoon and then it will firm up whilst chilling.

Spread the mixture evenly across the tart tin using the back of a spoon to press the mixture down and make it compact.  Keep doing this until you cover the base and sides.  Do it as evenly as you can but do not stress if it isn’t perfect! It will still taste good 😉

Use your clean finger to hold the sides while pressing up with the back of the spoon to build the mixture up the sides.

Place the base in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees c (fan) for just 10 minutes before removing and allowing to cool while you make the filling.

To make the filling, add a few inches of water to a pan and bring to the boil.  Place a bowl over the pan (one which sits over the pan rather than ‘in’ the pan so that bowl does not touch the water – a bain-marie).  Add the roughly cut chocolate, coconut cream and maple syrup to the bowl and stir together while it melts until thick and creamy and no chocolate pieces remain.

 

 

Pour this mixture directly over the base and spread evenly.

 

Place the tart in the fridge to set for 6hrs or overnight.

Cut into slices and serve alone or with your choice of berries.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container, which has a piece of kitchen roll in the bottom, for up to 3 days.