Wednesday, September 21, 2011

White chocolate, rosemary and pine nut pie



Adding savoury herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage to sweet desserts is a big food trend this year and nothing is more impressive when entertaining than serving up cutting edge flavours. This pie is incredibly simple to make (especially if you buy ready-made pastry) and ticks all the right boxes for a delicious dessert. Crisp pastry holding a satiny smooth filling - ready to ooze onto the plate as soon as your fork plunges into it - and the pine nuts and rosemary offset the sweetness of the white chocolate perfectly. Yum!



(serves 6)

400g store-bought shortcrust pastry
375g white chocolate
50g unsalted butter
50g castor sugar
3 eggs
1T finely chopped rosemary
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
125g self-raising flour
75g pine nuts

Thinly roll out the pastry and line 6 small tart tins. Bake blind* in a preheated oven at 180°C. Chop 250g of the chocolate and melt with the butter. Whisk together the sugar, eggs and rosemary. Stir in the melted chocolate, lemon zest, juice and flour. Pour into the tart case, scatter with the pine nuts and the chopped chocolate. Bake at 160°C for 25 minutes or until golden. Serve warm.


*To bake blind, place a piece of baking paper in the lined tart tin and fill with beans, rice or baking beads. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until just golden brown, remove the paper and beads and bake for a further 5 minutes until the centre is golden. Allow to cool.