Tart-a-Misu

Serves 8-12 (Makes 1 x 24cm tart) Desserts and puddings

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Method

Combine all the coffee syrup, ingredients together and set aside.

Place the blind-baked crust, still in the tin, on a tray that will be chilled later. To assemble the tart, slice the chocolate sponge cake into 1cm-thick strips and set aside. Divide the mascarpone- zabaione into 3 equal portions. If the mascarpone cream is a little soft, it will firm up when it meets the sponge. If it’s very soft, like thick soup, whip it until it thickens to soft peaks. Layer the tart as follows: smooth one-third of the mascarpone into the base of the crust, lay half the sponge tiles on top, then brush with the coffee syrup. Then one-third mascarpone, the remaining sponge tiles, a brush of syrup and the last of the mascarpone. Smooth the top.

Lightly spray the top with cooking oil spray and press a piece of cling film onto the mascarpone. Chill for 4 hours.

To serve, scatter the chocolate pieces over the top and then dust liberally with the cocoa through a fine sieve. Serve chilled.

Nutty butter crust

MAKES 1 X 24CM TART CRUST OR 12 X 8CM TARLET CRUSTS

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C Fan/Gas 2. Put the nuts on a baking tray and toast for around 30 minutes, until deeply golden.

Cool, then crush the nuts in a food processor (or mortar, or chop finely with a knife) until they are the size of whole peppercorns.

Put the crushed nuts, flour, sugar and salt in a wide mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until the butter lumps are the size of small peas and the flour has taken on a yellowy hue. It should feel like silky ground almonds with a few nutty bits and butter lumps.

Add 25ml iced water to the buttery flour and keep mixing with your hands, lightly squeezing the dough together. The mix will look crumbly at first and then will come together like play dough. Loosely wrap the dough in cling film, then press the dough into a 2cm-thick disc, gently squeezing around the edge to smooth out any cracks. If the dough is not too warm, you can start rolling. Or, if it feels sticky, chill for 15 minutes until pliable.

Place the dough on a floured surface and press it out a little with the palm of your hand. Give the dough 1 or 2 short, pressured rolls with the pin before lifting and moving the dough 90 degrees, making the rolls longer as the dough circle widens. Dust underneath the dough at regular intervals to prevent sticking.

For a 24cm tart tin, roll out the dough to a 35cm circle, around 4mm thick.

Trim, then gently lift and flop the dough into the tin. Working in sections, tuck the dough into the edge and against the side of the tart tin to prevent air pockets, then roll off the excess. Freeze for at least 1 hour before blind baking. For individual tins, cut circles slightly larger than the tins and line the same way.

To blind bake, preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Cover the frozen dough with tinfoil, tucking it snugly into the edge of the tin. Fill with sugar and bake for 35-45 minutes (25 minutes for individual tins), until the crust is a deep biscuity brown.

Mascarpone-zabaione

MAKES AROUND 800G

Fill a 20cm-wide saucepan with 5cm water. Bring to a low simmer. Choose a heatproof bowl (at least 25cm wide) that will nestle atop the pan without touching the water.

Put the egg, egg yolks, marsala, sugar, vanilla, cream of tartar and a tiny pinch of sea salt flakes in the bowl. You need to be ready to start whisking as soon as you’ve finished combining the ingredients in the bowl, to avoid lumps.

Place the bowl on top of the pan of water. Holding the bowl with a tea towel to protect against the steam and the hot bowl, start whisking energetically. Whisk for 1 minute. You need to put 80 per cent of your energy into that first minute. Try ‘drawing’ a figure-of- eight motion with the whisk. After 1 minute the foam will be frothy.

Turn the heat to low and the whisking energy down a fraction and continue figure-of-eight whisking for around 2 minutes, until it looks pale, fluffy and creamy.

If it starts to look chunky and scrambled, it's cooking too fast, so take the bowl off the pan for a minute. Vigorously whisk the steam out until it looks smooth.
A splash of cold milk can reduce the heat immediately, too. Return to the heat if it needs to thicken more. To test readiness, lift the whisk and use it to write your initial on the foam. The initial should be readable for 8 seconds before it sinks. Remove the bowl from the heat and cool at room temperature, whisking occasionally for 10 minutes, until tepid.

There is a lovely sweet spot for when you add the zabaione to the mascarpone – the zabaione should be tepid. Put the mascarpone in a bowl then, with a stiff spatula, slowly massage one-third of the zabaione into the mascarpone. Only just mix it in – keep it streaky. Keep your mix cool and movements slow. If it is threatening to split, chill for 5 minutes.

Repeat with the remaining two-thirds of the zabaione, adding it one-third at a time. After the last addition, give it a thorough mix. It should look like ultra-thick whipped cream. If not using straight away, cover and chill.

Chocolate sponge cake

SERVES 8-10 (MAKES 2 X 24CM CAKE LAYERS)

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3. Lightly spray the cake

tins with cooking oil spray and line the bases with baking paper.

Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip on a high speed for 3 minutes, until the whites are stiff and creamy white. Once glossy, add the sugar, 1tbsp at a time, over 3 minutes, until you have a shiny, stiff meringue.

Meanwhile, put the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl and swizzle everything together with your fingers, then set aside with a sieve ready. Heat the butter and milk to just boiled, then remove from the heat. Add the vanilla, stir to combine and set aside. When it comes time to add the milk, it should be warm.

As soon as all the sugar has been incorporated, add the egg yolks to the meringue and whip on a medium-high speed for 5 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the foam off the whisk into the bowl. Sift half the flour mix over the foam, then fold it in gently with a balloon whisk until well incorporated. Repeat with the remaining flour mix.

Working very quickly now, pour the warm butter and milk mix gently around the edge of the bowl. Fold in with the balloon whisk, using gentle but decisive folding strokes, until the batter is well mixed but still fluffy.

Dust a little extra cocoa powder on the inside of the prepared cake tins and divide the fluffy batter equally between the two tins and gently smooth the tops. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the sponge tops are springy to the touch.

Cool in the tins on a wire rack for 2 minutes, then gently cut around the sides of the cakes, flip them out onto the rack and remove the paper. Invert them so they are top-side up and leave to cool completely for 40 minutes.

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

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