FLOWER POT KITCHEN: REJECT CHOCOLATE CARAMEL TART

15 Oct 2012

REJECT CHOCOLATE CARAMEL TART

Chocolate caramel tart, this is a REJECT according to my family! It is the last time I do this recipe, I used 100% cocoa and a little 70%, and it is a bitter sweet chocolate tart, so my correction in this recipe will be only use 70% cocoa and you will have a sumptuous rich chocolate tart, but for you guys like me who are not all about the sugar but like the bitter sweet taste go for the higher % cocoa.

Looks so inviting, and is after the bitter sweet shock, and surprisingly is quite moorish.

Willy's Wonky Chocolate 100% cacao

I insist on making my own caramel, I take a tin of carnation milk and boil it covered with water for 2 hrs, this way I have a thicker more sweet condensed carnation to use, I personally find the one you can buy is too loose to use, and I cant seem to achieve the same fabulous results if I follow the method on the tin.

Ingredients

For the pastry (makes enough for 2)

150g unsalted butter

55g icing sugar
1 medium egg free range
200g plain flour
50g cocoa powder

For the filling
225g dark chocolate 70%-100%
2 eggs
150ml double cream
100ml milk
1 397g can carnation condensed milk to boil
(or caramelised condensed milk ready to go)

First make the pastry, beat the butter and icing sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, the add the egg and beat until smooth. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the butter mixture gently mix together until it comes together, it will be a sticky ball, turn out onto a floured surface and knead gently till smooth. Roll out and line your baking tin. I sometimes take the sticky ball from the mixer and push this into the baking tin instead of rolling out as it is a quicker way. Place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.

Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees, line the pastry with baking paper and baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes, remove the baking beans and bake for 5 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 130 degrees. Place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over simmering water, not letting the bowl touch the water. Gently melt and only stir towards the end, take off the heat and allow to cool only a little. Gently whisk the eggs until only just combined, don't froth. Heat the cream and milk in a saucepan to almost a simmer and pour over the egg, stirring all the time, return to the pan and over a really low heat stirring all the time cook the custard for a couple of minutes until thickened, don't be tempted to rush this stage as you will end up the scrambled egg custard. Pour through a sieve into the chocolate stirring until smooth.

Spread the caramelised condensed milk over the base of the pastry and then smooth the chocolate mixture over the top, bake in the oven 20 minutes then turn off the heat and leave in the oven for 1 hour with the door closed. Remove and chill, once chilled dust the top with cocoa powder.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.