Chilli-chocolate almond tarts

Makes 16 Desserts and puddings

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Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. Put the flour, almonds and butter cubes in a bowl and rub together with your fingers to form a breadcrumb texture, and stir in the sugar. Mix the egg yolk and 1tbsp water together and add to the mixture to form a dough. Lightly bring the dough together to form a ball, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and chill for 10 minutes. Retrieve the dough, then roll out and use to line the 16 round tart tins. Put them on a baking tray and chill for 10 minutes. Then, retrieve the tart tins, line the tarts with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 18 minutes, then lift out the beans. Put the tarts back in the oven for around 3 minutes, until they are a rich, even, golden colour. Cool and take them out of the moulds. Arrange on a tray.

To make the filling, put the cream and dark chilli chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (don’t let the base touch the water) and heat for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and stir until completely melted, and put to one side.

Melt the white chocolate in the same way as the dark but for just 3 minutes, then remove and stir until completely melted. Divide the chilli-chocolate mixture between the tart cases. One at a time, swirl some white chocolate onto the tops and, using a skewer, feather it into the chilli chocolate. Scatter with a few Aleppo chilli flakes and put in a cool place until set. Store in a container for a maximum of 3 days. When ready to serve, add a flake of edible gold leaf.

This recipe was taken from the April 2020 issue of Food and Travel.

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