White Chocolate, Cardamom and Raspberry Tart with a Pecan and Hazelnut Base
By Lucy Carr-Ellison and Jemima Jones
“This is one of our best desserts – it might even be Jemima’s favourite. It is exactly what you want in a dessert, with a crunchy nutty base, luxurious creamy centre and a tart lift from the raspberry. White chocolate and cardamom are a match made in heaven, we are always pairing them – try making white chocolate and cardamom ice cream, it’s divine.”
Ingredients
- 200g pecans
- 200g hazelnuts
- 175g unsalted butter, melted
- 2 pinches of sea salt
- 250g mascarpone
- 100ml double cream
- 300g good-quality white chocolate
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 250g raspberries
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Spread both the pecans and hazelnuts out on a baking tray and roast for about 15 minutes until nicely golden. Remove and set aside to cool.
2. Place half the nuts in a food possessor and blitz to a fine powder, then put into a bowl. Blitz the rest of the nuts to a rough crumb, then mix with the powdered nuts. Add the melted butter and a pinch of sea salt and stir to combine. Tip the mixture into a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin and press firmly up the sides and into the bottom of the tin. You want the base to be crunchy and quite thin, rather than a thick crust. Chill in the fridge while you get on with the filling.
3. Put the mascarpone, double cream, white chocolate, vanilla and cardamom into a pan and warm over a low heat, stirring all the time to let the chocolate melt, then add a pinch of salt and remove from
the heat.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the base. Return to the fridge and leave to set for about 1 hour.
5. Put the raspberries into a sieve suspended over a bowl. Use a spoon
to press the raspberries through the sieve, leaving the seeds behind in the sieve. Once done, take the nearly-set tart out of the fridge and use a teaspoon to dot blobs of the raspberry purée over the tart. Turn the teaspoon over and drag the dots a little to create a pretty, swirled effect. Return to the fridge for another 2 hours to set completely.
