Rocky Road Chocolate Tart

Over the past two weeks, I’ve travelled a lot. I’ve travelled north to Durham and to York (twice) and today I’ll be heading to Bath for the morning and then to London this afternoon. Basically, I’ve been busy, so for this week’s recipe I’ve decided to develop an old favourite of mine for this perfectly comforting treat!

I started making this chocolate tart a couple of years ago when I went looking for a cheesecake-like recipe which didn’t contain any cheese (I have a sister who hates the stuff) and that didn’t involve the usual faff of tarts and cheesecakes with their blind-baking and water-bathing ways (and if you don’t understand what these things are then I think my point is clear!) A cheesecake-base and a non-bake filling seemed like the perfect combination for a simple, quick and easy dessert that everyone, and I mean everyone, would love. And love it they did.

The original recipe came from the BBC Good Food website and while this was excellent, over the past year or so I’ve altered it each time this tart has been made to suit my personal taste and to get what I think is the best result. For example, the original recipe called for all 200g of the chocolate to be 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate. While I know that the higher the cocoa percentage, the more fashionable it is to chocolate lovers, this just isn’t to my taste. I decided therefore, to try using only half this amount of dark chocolate and to pair it with 100g of milk chocolate instead. The result was heavenly – not too bitter, not too sweet.

So, as I’ve already said, I’ve made this tart numerous times and it has always been deemed a success. What then, was the next step for it? Well, while sitting on the train home from one of my long journeys north, I was musing upon this week’s recipe and called upon my long-suffering and often force-fed boyfriend for inspiration. He then proceeded to suggest some of my past creations, including a particular disaster which involved a lot of caramel and marshmallows stuck to the bottom of a cake tin. Knowing I had half a packet of marshmallows sitting in the cupboard at home, this got me thinking as did the mention of one of his particular favourites – the chocolate tart. Now correct me if I’m wrong but when it comes down to the word association of chocolate and marshallows, the next thing to spring to mind is surely rocky road? And didn’t a rocky road chocolate tart just sound amazing??

Now, having actually made this divine creation I have to tell you; it is a monster. Literally, it is a beast of a dessert and is not for the faint-hearted...or those with high cholesterol or a family history of heart conditions. It’s gooey, and sickly and definitely not pretty.

Still gorgeous though. If you love chocolate, rocky road and sickly sweet desserts then this is the one for you! It also struck me as a great recipe for this time of year when we all know we’re going to receive more boxes of biscuits and chocolates than can ever be eaten by a normal human. I’ve given some suggestions for the ‘rubble’ but feel free to substitute this for whatever you’ve got to hand. Bash it up and chuck it in this recipe, it doesn’t matter what you use. As long as it has texture and is delicious then it’ll work perfectly.

Some final tips before you get started:

• If you don’t mind the extra washing up, use a blender to make the crumbs for your base and to chop up the rocky road.
• On the other hand, if you’ve had a really bad day and need to take it out on something, take a rolling pin and just get smashing those ingredients.
• Use an electric whisk to beat the cream if possible, it’ll save you both time and effort.
• If you can’t get hold of butter biscuits for the base, just use digestives. Can’t go wrong.

Rocky Road Chocolate Tart

Ingredients (Chocolate Tart)

250g Butter Biscuits

75g Butter

1 tbsp. Golden Syrup

100g Dark Chocolate

100g Milk Chocolate

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

2 tbsp. Icing Sugar

200ml Whipping Cream

For the Rocky Road

50g Chocolate Covered Honeycomb

75g White Chocolate Buttons

50g Malteasers

100g Chocolate Caramel Biscuits

50g Marshmallows

20cm Square Cake Tin or Equivalent

1)      Place the butter biscuits into a blender and blend until they look like breadcrumbs. Melt the butter and golden syrup together over a low heat and mix with crushed biscuits. Press crumb mixture into the base of the tin and place in the fridge to chill.

2)      Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a bowl over a bowl of simmering water. When completely melted, stir in the vanilla extract and icing sugar. Leave to cool slightly.

3)      In a separate bowl, whisk the whipping cream until it holds its shape. Fold in the chocolate mixture gently until smooth and combined.

4)      Place your rocky road rubble ingredients into the blender and pulse briefly until roughly chopped.

5)      Gently stir the rubble into the combined chocolate and cream until evenly distributed. Pour this mixture onto the chilled base and chill again for at least 1 hour.

6)      When firmly set, slice into bars to serve.

Serves 9