Tarte au chocolat

Serves 6 Desserts and puddings

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Method

Lightly grease the tart tin. Remove the ready-made pastry from the fridge and stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 3mm thickness and very carefully fit it to the tin, pressing lightly. Make sure it takes the shape of the mould and covers the bottom of the tin entirely. When complete, prick the pastry base all over with a fork then put it back in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This stops it from shrinking when baking.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Line the pastry base with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or uncooked beans or rice, and blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven, leave to cool, then refrigerate.

To make the chocolate ganache: finely chop up the chocolate, transfer to a heatproof bowl and set aside. Pour the cream into a saucepan, then split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds and along with the pod add to the cream. Add the sugar and bring to the boil for about 30 seconds, stirring gently to dissolve the sugar, then fish out the vanilla pod. Slowly pour into the chocolate and let it melt for about 1 minute. Then start to gently whisk in a circular motion, starting from the middle and working outwards, to achieve a smooth texture. Gradually add the butter, whisking continuously until the ganache is silky smooth and shiny.

When the chocolate is completely dissolved with the cream and butter and still warm but not hot, remove the tin with the pastry from the fridge and pour in the ganache. Leave it to cool, then chill for 2 hours. Remove the tart from the tin when solid, and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.