My Dad knows me too well.
I got a package the other day containing some rather boring things. Contact lens solution. A contact lens case. Oh and some gaviscon. Joy.
I think Dad felt sorry that it was probably the most boring package known to man kind (unless peroxide based lens solution really gets you fizzing). So as a surprise he threw in the World Menus edition of Delicious magazine to counteract the epic lame.
It is a wonderful magazine. But like all cookbooks and food publications I rate them based on their sweet section - as that is the section I am most instantly attracted to and flick to first.
Over in the dear old Australian section there was a delectable looking recipe for Tim Tam tarts.
Whoever thought up that one is just genius.
They should be given a medal or something.
I showed this recipe to my best friend.
We were in awe. United by the prospect of glorious calories.
We new that someday soon this dream would have to happen.
It did. Like two days later. Because our inner fat children cannot be contained for very long.
The weather was dreary but her house was warm. We had packets of tim tams, lashings of cream and oodles of chocolate at our disposal. It was a very good day indeed.
For the record I started off the day by saying I was going to "eat healthy" and "go on a diet".
Epic fail right there. Cara has a way of ruining diet plans and funnily enough she is the one getting married in November :P
Right so we made these tarts in our 8cm tart tins. We felt that they could be made far smaller as they are really very rich and four tarts is just not simply enough to share around. Cara and I managed to devour just a single tart between us and even then we had to go beach ourselves on the couch for the next hour to recover from the chocolate coma. My friend Matt had to share his tart between his two other flatmates. We have warned you.
These could quite easily be made in a mini muffin pan, in fact they would make perfect bite sized treats, great for a party or a crowd.
The base consists of tim tams crumbed up with melted butter. It was quite fiddly pressing this mixture neatly into the fluted pans so patience you must have. Don't forget to spray your tins well before filling them too!
The type of chocolate you use is up to you. We used 72% Whittakers dark Ghana chocolate. It made quite a bitter filling since there wasn't any sugar added to it to lighten it up. This would be perfect if you were thinking of serving these with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and some raspberries. However if you are planning to serve them by themselves perhaps go for a slightly less intense chocolate, like the 60ish% variety. Then again, the choice is all yours. But do note that these tarts, like all things made from chocolate, will only be as good as the chocolate you buy so now is not the time to be stingy.
We had some left over chocolate filling which we may or may not have mixed with Baileys and eaten from the spoon . . .
Hmm I am still awaiting my marriage proposal for these. I accept tubs of Patagonia
dulce de leche
ice cream instead of diamonds . . .
Right enough chit chat. Lets do these.
Tim Tam Chocolate Tarts
As found in Delicious: World Menus issue 2013.
Makes 4 8cm tarts
For the base
1 packet of plain chocolate tim tams (200g)
30g melted butter, cooled
For the filling:
200g good quality dark chocolate - around 60% cocoa solids
200ml pouring cream (the normal cream you find in the bottles)
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or good vanilla essence
2 egg yolks
ice cream, whipped cream, fresh berries and cocoa to serve.
4x8cm loose bottomed tart tins or 6x6cm tins.
Grease your tart tins with cooking spray and set aside.
Place the tim tams in a food processor and pulse to a fine crumb. Remove three tablespoons for the topping and set aside. Add in the butter to the rest of the crumb mix and pulse until combined.
Press the base mix into the tart tins so that it is compact and firm. Place in the fridge to cool while you make the filling.
Preheat the oven to 160C.
In a medium sized saucepan, warm the cream up until just before it reaches a simmer. Remove it from the heat and add in the chocolate. Let the chocolate stand in the cream for a minute before quickly stirring it in so it becomes a dark smooth liquid. Stir in the vanilla then briskly whisk in the egg yolks.
Pour the filling into the prepared cases but make sure you leave about 2-3mm of space just incase it expands.
(She is probably going to kill me for this one - but here is
my wonderful best friend Cara. She beat me to the whisk!)
Place the tarts on a baking tray or in a metal baking dish (such as a brownie pan) and bake for 15 minutes or until the filling no longer wobbles when gently shaken.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before serving.
Dust over the cocoa and sprinkle over the reserved crumbs (it is supposed to look like soil - these are "Australian" after all!). Serve with ice cream or cream or raspberries.
Enjoy!