Yield
Serves 12
Prep Time
30mins
Cook Time
90mins
Difficulty Level
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Bite into these rich and crumbly chocolate tarts that give way to a soft and gooey centre, perfectly complimented with toppings of oven-baked honey walnuts and vanilla-poached pears.

Ingredients

  • 125 g cold butter, chopped
  • ¼ cup (40 g) icing sugar
  • 1¼ cup (185 g) plain flour
  • 1 tbsp dutch cocoa
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp chilled water
  • 400 g dark chocolate (50 per cent cocoa) chopped
  • 200 g butter, chopped coarsley, extra
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp plain flour

POACHED PEARS

  • ½ cup (125 ml) lemon juice
  • ½ cup (175 g) honey
  • 2 cups (500 ml) water
  • ½ cup (110 g) caster sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthways
  • 6 green pears (1.2 kg), peeled, quartered

HONEYED WALNUTS

  • ¾ cup (75g) walnuts
  • 1 tbsp honey
01.

Process butter, icing sugar, flour and cocoa until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and the water; process until ingredients come together. Enclose in plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 mins.

02.

Roll pastry between sheets of baking paper until 5 mm thick. Freeze 5 mins. Lift pastry into an 11 cm x 35 cm rectangular loose-based fluted tart tin, press into sides, trim edges; prick base all over with a fork. Freeze 20 mins.

03.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 C.

04.

Place tart tin on an oven tray; line with baking paper, fill with dried beans or rice. Bake 15 mins. Remove paper and beans; bake a further 10 mins or until browned lightly. Cool on tray.

05.

Reduce oven to 180 C.

06.

Stir chocolate and extra butter in a heatproof medium bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until just melted. Remove bowl from pan; whisk in egg and flour until just combined. Pour mixture into pastry case; smooth surface.

07.

Bake tart 20 mins or until just set. Cool. Cover; refrigerate 3 hrs or overnight.

08.

Meanwhile, make poached pears, Heat juice, honey, the water, sugar and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over a low heat; cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil over a high heat; reduce heat to medium-low. Add pears; cook 20 mins or until just tender.

09.

Remove pears from syrup with a slotted spoon. Return syrup to the boil over high heat. Boil 10 mins or until thickened slightly.

10.

Next make honeyed walnuts. Place walnuts on a baking-paper-lined oven tray. Drizzle with honey; toss to coat. Bake at 180 C for 12 mins, stirring halfway, until golden. Cool.

11.

Serve tart topped with walnuts and syrup, accompanied with pears.

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