Let me start by saying, this is one of those recipes that will haunt me at night, and my mind will not rest until I taste it again and again…..

We found this “new version” of the Chocolate Tart on The Pretty Blog about two weeks before our weekend away, we did amend it slightly but it introduced us to one magical ingredient….. I think that this tart ended the weekend with a BIG smile on my face, and the secret ingredient, the very simple “nutti crust biscuit base”.

For the Chocolate Tart you will need:
1 x loose bottom fluited quiche / tart tin, preferably one that is about 4 cm high…
400g very fine nutti crust biscuits (a caramel flavoured dry biscuit)
120 g melted butter
200g dark chocolate, chopped finely
300g normal milk chocolate, chopped finely
500ml cream
butter for greasing the tin
A little bit of whipped cream for serving

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Grease the tin well with butter. Mix together the fine nutti crust biscuits and melted butter, line the base and the sides of the tin with the biscuit mixture, we used our fingers and a flat bottomed glass to firmly even out the biscuit base, it is quite important to seal the whole bottom and the sides with the mixture as the filling is very liquid and will seep through if the base is not properly lined with the buttery biscuit mixture….

Bake the biscuit base for about 15 minutes, make sure the biscuits don’t turn too brown, all the ingredients are already cooked, but the butter and biscuit mixture needs to “seal” during the baking process…

In a small saucepan, heat the cream until just before boiling point, add the chopped chocolate and stir through, keep on stirring slowly until all the chocolate has melted. Initially it will look as if it won’t melt, but just keep on stirring. It should turn into a glossy chocolate liquid….. If the warm cream don’t melt the chocolate completely, hang the mixing bowl over a pot with hot water, make sure the water in the pot don’t touch the bottom of your bowl… but this should not be necessary… the melting process can take up to 5 minutes so don’t rush it.

Pour this glossy chocolate mixture onto the biscuit base and refrigerate of at least 6 hours….. It should set firmly….

Once set, and ready to serve, remove the side of the loose bottom tin, and with one firm but gentle movement slide the tart off the base of the thin onto a serving platter. Decorate with fresh berries and dust with icing surgar. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

We closed off this festive weekend with writing messages on sky lanterns and sending them up in the air….

I could not have asked for a better weekend or a nicer 40th Birthday. Surprising my friends with an early morning kayak trip, a lovely breakfast at a different guest house, a lazy afternoon at the pool and Shannon cooking up a storm for my 40th dinner, sending sky lanterns with messages and taking pictures on the beach at midnight….

If i can have my 40th over again, I will do everything exactly the same…

Just a pity that tomorrow morning we all need to go back home, but Nieuview had a special extra surprise waiting for us…