10 OUTSTANDING RECIPES TO PULL OUT AND KEEP
*Mini melting chocolate pastries
MAKES AROUND 30. HANDS-ON TIME 20 MIN, OVEN TIME 15 MIN, PLUS CHILLING
MAKE AHEAD
Mini melting chocolate pastries
Cover and chill the unglazed, unbaked pastries for 24 hours, or freeze for 1 month. Glaze, then bake (if baking from frozen, cook for an extra 2 minutes).
• 320g pack ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry
• 100g bar dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 1 medium free-range egg, beaten
• Demerara sugar to sprinkle
• Dark and white chocolate, melted separately, to decorate
1 Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/ gas 6. Unroll the pastry onto a work surface. Using a rolling pin, gently roll it out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the pastry in half, widthways, then break the chocolate into its individual pieces and distribute evenly over 1 piece of pastry, leaving a 1cm gap between each piece of chocolate and at the edges.
2 Brush between the chocolate pieces with beaten egg, then lay the other piece of pastry over the top. Use your fingers to press down the pastry around the chocolate, pushing out the air.
3 Using a sharp knife, cut the pastry into even pieces, leaving a border around each chocolate piece. Put on a nonstick baking sheet, brush with beaten egg to glaze, press down the edges with a fork to seal, then chill for 30 minutes.
4 Glaze again, then sprinkle with sugar and bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Cool for 2 minutes, drizzle with melted chocolate, then serve warm.
PER PASTRY 81kcals, 5.1g fat (2.6g saturated), 1.3g protein, 7.4g carbs (3.3g sugars), 0.1g salt, 0.5g fibre
Chocolate mousse and passion fruit tart
SERVES 12-16. HANDS-ON TIME 50 MIN, PLUS CHILLING
MAKE AHEAD
KNOW-HOW
FOOD TEAM’S TIPS
Chocolate mousse and passion fruit tart
This will happily sit in the fridge overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving. Passion fruit are at their ripest when their skins have turned wrinkly.
To prevent the mousse mixture from splitting when you add the egg yolks and passion fruit at the end of step 2, make sure the melted chocolate mixture has cooled completely. If it splits, whisk in some of the cold, unwhipped cream. It may look grainy but it will come good in the fridge.
If you have a blowtorch, you can briefly run it over the top of the finished tart to give it a professional-looking glaze.
FOR THE BASE
• Sunflower oil for greasing
• 350g Oreo biscuits
• 2½ tbsp cocoa powder
• 110g unsalted butter, melted
FOR THE MOUSSE
• 200g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), chopped into chunks
• 200g good quality milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
• 60g light muscovado sugar
• 75g unsalted butter
• 2 medium free-range egg yolks
• Pulp from 5 passion fruit, whizzed in a food processor, then sieved and seeds discarded, plus extra passion fruit pulp to serve
• 300ml whipping cream, cold
FOR THE GANACHE TOPPING