Silky Chocolate Tarte

A real treat if you are a chocolate lover ( I am one...) , actually this tarte is very quick to be made so try it out.

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Pastry: 100g butter, softened, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1 cup plain flour, 2 tabelespoons cocoa powder

Filling:100g butter, 150g dark chocolate, 1 small egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

To make the pastry: gently cream butter, sugar and egg yolk together. Mix in flour and cocoa to form a firm dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refidgirate for 30 min. Roll out dough to 3 mm thick and use to line a buttered tart tin. Chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 200°C, line the pastry shell with baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake blind for 15 minutes, remove beans or rice and return pastry back to oven to dry out for 3-4 min. Reduce oven temp to 160°C.

To make the filling, melt butter and chocolate together carefully in microwave until smooth. Whisk egg, yolk and sugar together until thick and pale. Fold egg mixture into melted chocolate until evenly coloured. Pour filling into pastry shell and bake for 15 minutes to set. Remove and leave to set to room temperature before slicing.

Decorate if you want to... ;)

Andy's Fruit Tart

Andy has not got a sweet tooth, and cakes is not his thing. But he loves fruit-tarts. And he makes amazing ones too. Every summer, this is on the menu, when friends come for a dinner or bbq, we serve this for dessert. He varies the recipes to suit people with allergies and no one so far has not loved them. For a quick tart you can use ready-rolled-out sweet shortcrust pastry as a base.

Ingredients:
for sweet short crust pastry:  1 1/2 cups (250g) plain flour, 125g butter, chilled, chopped,1/3 cup caster sugar 1 egg yolk, 1 tablespoon chilled water
for the tart - topping : 250g ground almonds, 2 tablespoons sugar,  approx. 1-1.5kg plums ( you can use cherries, rhubarb, apple or any fruit you like), 1/4l milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instrucitions:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Short crust pastry: Combine flour, butter and sugar in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc. Wrap in baking paper and refrigerate for
30 minutes. Place into a well greased or prepared tart tin (prepared with baking paper). Make sure the sides of the tin are covered as well.
Spread ground almonds onto base, place fruit on top, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile make a mix out of 1/4l milk, cinnamon, egg. After 15 minutes baking time, pour the milk mix over the fruit and bake for another 35-40 min.
Serve with yoghurt or ice cream.