Chocolate Mole Tart

This tart is for when you make a batch of dulce de leche and need something to do with it, other than spoon it straight from the jar to your mouth. 

Chocolate Mole Tart

slightly adapted from here

For the Pastry:

250g plain flour, extra for dusting

50g icing sugar

125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Zest of 1 orange

1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon or so of milk

For the Filling:

100g roasted hazelnuts

200g dark chocolate, chopped

Sea salt flakes

150g unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

4 - 5 tablespoons dulce de leche

For the Sprinkle:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cloves

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 dried red chilli

Zest ½ orange

5 teaspoons cocoa powder

3 teaspoons icing sugar

Sea Slat flakes

Make the Pastry:

Put the flour, sugar and butter into a food processor. Pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the zest and vanilla seeds and pulse again.

Add the egg and blitz until well mixed. Add enough milk to bring the mixture into a ball.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured bench. Form into a disc and wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

When the dough has rested, roll it out large to fit into a lightly oiled 25cm loose-bottomed tart pan, about 0.5cm thick. Line the base and sides of the pan with the pastry. Trim the excess pastry, prick the base all over with a fork and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Remove from the freezer, line the pastry with a piece of baking paper and fill the case up with baking beans or weights. Bake blind for 10 minutes, remove the beans and paper, and return the shell to the oven for a further 10 minutes until firm, but not brown.  Leave on a wire rack to cool

Make the Filling:

Melt the chocolate and a pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of barely simmering water, don't let the pan touch the water. Add the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Put 75ml of water into a pan with 150g of sugar and whisk. Put the pan over a low heat and heat until the sugar has dissolved and you have a thin, pale syrup. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs until fluffy. Add the remaining 50g sugar and mix for 5 minutes, until pale and frothy. With the mixer running, slowly pour in your warm syrup and then the melted chocolate. Mix very briefly to combine.

Assemble the Tart:

Spread the dulce de leche evenly onto the base of the tart shell. Roughly chop the hazelnuts and sprinkle them onto the dulce de leche. Pour over the warm chocolate mixture. Place on a baking tray and bake for 17 minutes, until the chocolate has set around the edges, but the centre still has a slight wobble to it. Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours.

Make the Sprinkle:

Put all the sprinkle ingredients into a mortar and bash until it becomes a fine powder. Sprinkle it through a sieve on top of the tart.