Tonight is chocolate week on Great British Bake Off – in our opinion, the best week. So excuse us for being a teensy bit over the moon that Iain Watters, of 2014 GBBO fame, has very kindly shared his chocolate tart recipe with us on this semi-final night.

During last year’s show, the bearded Irish man caused a storm of controversy when he binned his baked Alaska, maybe what he needed was a new set of baking products? Click to read more about our suggestions.

RECIPE: Iain’s Chocolate Tart with an Almond Praline

Serves 6-8
Cooking time: 25 mins
Prep time: 1 hour
Oven temp: Fan assisted 160, gas 4 or conventional 180

For the pastry

225g plain flour
100g butter, diced
1 egg
<H2>Chocolate tart filling<H2>
450ml double cream
3tsp caster sugar
75g unsalted butter
300g 70% cocoa chocolate
75ml whole milk

Decoration

50g Toast flaked almonds
100g caster sugar

Method

  1. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.
  2. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it does not become greasy.
  3. Stir in just enough of the egg to bind the dough together.
  4. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 30minutes before using.
  5. Alternatively using a food processor; put the flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour.
  6. With the motor running, gradually add the egg through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough egg to bind it and then stop.
  7. Wrap the dough in clingfilm as before and chill for 30 minutes before using.
  8. Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4.
  9. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23cm greased tart tin. Cover with baking paper, fill with dried beans and bake blind for 10 minutes, remove beans and bake again for 15 minutes until golden.
  10. For the tart filling put the cream, sugar and salt in a pan and bring to the boil.
  11. Remove as soon as the mixture boils up. Off the heat, add the butter and chopped chocolate. Stir until blended.
  12. Take a couple of minutes for a breather, then stir in the milk.
  13. Keep stirring till shiny. Pour into the tart shell and leave at room temperature for 2 hours to set.
  14. To make the decoration melt the caster sugar in a frying pan until it turns golden.
  15. Place the almonds on a silicon-lined baking sheet or a piece of baking paper and pour over the melted sugar
  16. Leave to cool and then cut into wedges with a sharp knife and arrange onto of the tart.
  17. And there you have it! A delicious dessert which is bound to make chocolate week all the more enjoyable…

Iain-Watters-Chocolate-Tart

Thanks Iain!…

Baking fever has gripped the nation ever since Great British Bake Off hit our screens in 2010 and statistics from AO.com show year-on-year sales of its food mixers, whisks and blenders have increased by a staggering 326%, which backs the theory that the UK has truly been bitten by the baking bug.