Chocolate tartlets

This very sweet, very short shortcrust pastry is ridiculously buttery and almost too crazy to try to work with – except for one reason – it tastes really good! It’s more like a biscuit than a pastry and, because it’s hard to handle, I prefer to use it to make small tarts and actually press it into the tins rather than try to roll it. You will need 10 x 10 cm tartlet pans with removable bases for this recipe.

• serves

  10

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 125 ml (½ cup) pouring cream
• 90 g (¼ cup) golden syrup
• 220 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
• 30 ml (1½ tbsp) espresso coffee (or 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1½ tbsp water)
• 2 tbsp Frangelico or hazelnut liqueur
• 10 hazelnuts, toasted

Shortcrust pastry

• 200 g unsalted butter, softened
• 100 g icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 150 g (1 cup) plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp lemon zest

Chilling time 2 hours

Instructions

To make pastry, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until well combined. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until combined. Fold through flour and lemon zest and stir until mixture just comes together. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut pastry into 10 even pieces and press into 10 greased 10 cm tartlet pans with removable bases, until pastry is about 4 mm thick. Trim any excess pastry and refrigerate for 1 hour. Cover pastries with baking paper and fill with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove beans and paper and bake for a further 5 minutes or until base is dry.

Meanwhile, heat cream and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes or until nearly boiling. Whisk in chocolate and stir for 2 minutes or until melted. Remove from heat, then stir in coffee and a pinch of salt. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Stir in Frangelico and set aside to cool for 30 minutes; mixture will thicken as it cools.

Pour mixture evenly into tartlet cases; you can reheat mixture if it becomes too thick to pour. Place a hazelnut into the centre of each tartlet and serve at room temperature.

Photography Alan Benson.

As seen in Feast magazine, November 2014, Issue 37. For more recipes and articles, pick up a copy of this month's Feast magazine or check out our great subscriptions offers here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.