If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, then you may have spotted this slice of deliciousness popping up all over my profile. Yes, I did indeed make that.
Yes, it was as good as it looks.
And Yes, I'm not ashamed to brag about my own baking.
What can I say? I rarely produce something that actually looks like the picture in the recipe AND tastes as good.
So I thought you I'd share the recipe and a few snaps (apologies in advance for any drooling on keyboard incidents) so that if you want to, you could give it a go yourself.
Now, I got this recipe from a book called 'Bake' (classic name!) that the boy kindly treated me too a couple of months ago. It's full of recipes from around the world (can you guess where this one came from?), and this is the first thing I've made from it... going on the success of this, I'll definitely be returning to give plenty of the others a go.
So without further ado, and before my head gets much bigger, here you go:
Ingredients:
Chocolate Layer85g Plain Chocolate 85g Unsalted Butter85g Light Muscovado Sugar2 Eggs, beaten100ml fl oz single cream
Pastry175g Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting25g Cocoa Powder40g Light Muscovado Sugar85g Unsalted Butter2-3tbsp Cold Water
Topping250ml whipping cream85g plain chocolate
Method:1. Preheat the oven to 200�C/400�F/Gas Mark 6. To make the pastry, sift the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add just enough water to bind to a dough.I then popped my pastry in the fridge for around 20 mins...my mum always says pastry is easier to work with when it's been chilled, and mum's always right, right?
2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a round large enough to line a 3cm deep, 20cm round tart tin. Use the pastry to line the tin. Prick the base with a fork, cover with a piece of greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans, then bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and take out the greaseproof paper and beans. Reduce the oven temperature to 180�C/350�F/Gas Mark 4.
3. Put the chocolate and butter into a saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring until melted. Put the sugar and eggs into a bowl and whisk together until smooth, then stir in the chocolate mixture, cream and vanilla extract.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pastry case and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Leave to cool.I left mine overnight in the fridge before adding the cream layer, but that's not to say doing it once it's cool won't work.
5. to make the topping, whip the cream until it holds its shape, then spread over the pie. Put the chocolate into a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water and heat until it melted, then spoon into a piping bag and pipe decorations over the cream. I actually just grated the chocolate over the top, much quicker and easier, and I didn't really think pouring hot chocolate over cream was a good idea?
6. Serve, and enjoy!
