Bitter chocolate and raspberry tartlet

Bake without trimming the edges

Today's recipe is from one of the challenges set by Michel Roux Jnr in Masterchef: The Professionals.  But that wasn't specifically why I chose it.  I still had a little pastry left over from my mince pie fest earlier this week and I wanted to have a go at making a small tartlet in one of my little loose bottom tartlet tins.

Every time I've tried to use them before, during blind baking, the pastry has receded into a disc in the middle, leaving me with no retaining edges.  But this time, it was going to be different.


I'm sure it was some random TV watch during my maternity leave when I was in the middle of a marathon breastfeeding session or another (altogether we kept it up for15 months - how proud am I of that!) that I happened across Cookery School on Channel 4 with Gizzi Erskine and Richard Corrigan.

Wohoo, I have sides

Mr Corrigan is someone who would probably drive me nuts in the kitchen, yet I respect him with equal measure.  I just adore Gizzi for rocking the retro look - I wish I could do perfect eyeliner like her!  Anyhow, they made this very tart but revealed the secret to a perfect pastry edge is to not trim the pastry before you cook it, but to leave it overhanging, bake and then trim with a sharp knife once it's cooled.  How very educational.  I've since seen the lovely Dame Mary do the same on GBBO so I was desperate to give this a try.

And largely, it worked.  I think I should've maybe spent more time pressing the pastry into the nooks and crannies of the mould but Miss A was busy washing my kitchen floor with the dog's water bowl so the pastry didn't have my undivided attention.  But when it was baked, I had a crispy bottom and a passable edge to it.

The finished tartlet.

Only problem was that as the tins are so shallow, the raspberries (despite me lying them sideways and squashing them a bit) poked out of the surface of the ganache so the finished pie looks a bit lumpy.

It's still setting as I type.  I'm off to sample it later and will post a pic of the presented version tomorrow but I came upstairs to write my blog and book tickets to go and see Santa at Longleat tomorrow - wheeee!  Even chocolate raspberry tart isn't as important as your child's first visit to Father Christmas.

The recipe is in this month's Good Food Magazine and there's clip from the programme on YouTube.