Hurrah! It’s Chocolate Week on the Great British Bake Off and we are already drooling in anticipation. It’s also back to familiar territory with tarts and soufflés rather than flaounas and mokatines which is somewhat of a relief. The most challenging element of this week’s show appears to be the showstopper which is an architectural chocolate centrepiece that must taste as good as it looks. With a place in the final at stake, we imagine the temperature in the tent will be hotting up which is the last thing you want in Chocolate Week . . .
The chocolate signature is for a chocolate tart but with a slight twist in that the pastry must be chocolate too. We like the sound of double chocolate tart very much, but adding cocoa can make the pastry drier and more difficult to handle. The semi-finalists would do well to study Victoria Glass’s Double chocolate raspberry tart for perfect chocolate pastry. In terms of filling, plenty of inspiration can be found in our collection of chocolate tart recipes from Anna Hansen’s Chocolate and caraway tart to Paul A. Young’s Sea-salted caramel tart with Javanese milk chocolate. Chocolate goes brilliantly with a wide range of ingredients, such as nuts, spices, some herbs, sharp fruits, chilli, bananas and treacle so we are expecting some really special combinations to come out of the tent this week.
