This tart is a long time favourite of our family. This year we gave it a little twist by adding little meringue drops and blue berries. A hit with the little cousins, as some berries and drops got picked off before serving…

The base of this tart, the shell, can be made way beforehand and been kept in the freezer. Just bake it of when needed. The filling is very easy to do, kids love to help out with this. (and not only to lick the spoon!) You can buy the meringue or either make them yourself.

Ingredients for the tart shell

To make 1 * 30cm tart mould
125g of butter
100g of icing sugar
a pinch of salt
250g of flour
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of cold milk or water

You can make this pastry by hand or in a food processor.
Cream together the butter, sugar and salt and then rub or pulse in the flour and egg yolks.
When this mixture has come together, looking like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water.
Pat and gently work together to form a ball of dough. Lightly flour and push, pat and squeeze into shape.
The idea is to get your ingredients to a dough form with the minimum amount of movement, i.e. keeping your pastry flaky and short. (the more you work it the more elastic it will get, causing it to shrink in the oven
and be chewy).
Roll the pastry into a large, short and fat sausage-shape, wrap it in cling-film and place it in the fridge to rest for at least 1 hour.
Carefully slice off thin slivers of your pastry lengthways, around 5mm thick. Place the slivers in and around the bottom and sides of your tart mould, just fitting them together like a sort of jigsaw. Then simply push the pieces together, level out, then tidy up the sides by pushing with your thumb and either cleaning off the excess pastry from the rim of the mould, or allowing it to hang over the edge. Once you’ve finished linging your tart mould you must again allow it to rest for at least a couple of hours in the freezer.
Bake the tart shell from frozen for around 15 minutes at 180°C.

Ingredients for the chocolate filling

315ml of double cream
2 level tablespoons caster sugar
a pinch of salt
115g butter, softened
455g best-quality cooking chocolate, broken up
100ml milk

Place the double cream, sugar and pinch of salt in a pan and bring to the boil.
As soon as the mixture has boiled, remove from the heat and add the butter and chocolate.
Stir until is has completely melted. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, stirring in the cold milk until smooth and shiny. Scrape all the mixture into the cooked and cooled pastry shell with a spatula.
Shake the tart tot even it out and allow to cool for around 1 – 2 hours until it is at room temperature.
Decorate with the meringue drops and the blackberries. Tip: Rasberries go also very well with chocolate! The filling should be smooth and should cut like butter.