Salty Chocolate Truffle Torte

Deep and rich and rummy with salty peanut pastry

I was invited to dinner and scrabble at a friend's, so I said that I would bring round some dessert. I wanted to make use of my cute little loose bottom mini tart tins, and thought, salty pastry with rich chocolatey filling? YES PLEASE! I've made variations of this tart before, using almonds and cocoa in the pastry, bourbon in the filling, different amounts of salt, blah blah. This time I thought I'd make use of some pub quiz winnings rum and some ground up peanuts in the base. The result? rich, deep chocolatey smoothness with a warming heat from the rum and a salty crumbly finish.


Ingredients:
65g plain flour
15g icing sugar
40g butter
30g finely ground up roasted salted peanuts
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten (you will need nearly all of it)
pinch of salt


150ml double cream
15g golden syrup
25g dark soft brown sugar
175g dark chocolate (75% or so) broken in to small pieces
35g butter, chopped
30 ml dark rum


Method:
-Preheat the oven to gas 3/170, lightly grease 4 little tart tins with loose bottoms. Make the pastry. Put the flour, icing sugar and butter in to a bowl and rub in until it's breadcrumb like. Stir in the nuts and mix in some yolk to bind. Mix in a little iced water until it becomes a dough- not too much though. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 10 minutes or so.
-Roll out the pastry quite thinly and line the tins. Place a little foil or baking paper over the top and pour in some baking beans. Bake for 15 mins. Remove the baking beans and then bake for 10 mins more. Leave to cool.
- Heat the cream until it boils. Remove from the heat and add the sugar and syrup until dissolved. Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted. Add the rum and stir. Leave it to cool for a little bit, then beat to emulsify. Pour in to the cases and leave to set.
- for extra heart attack inducing fun, sprinkle with a little extra sea salt before serving.

The pastry was a little thick, but that's not such a bad thing when you have all that filling to contend with