Chestnut cream, chocolate and hazelnut tart

Chestnut cream, chocolate and hazelnut tart

This is a delicate and moist flourless tart inspired by the flavours of Piedmont.

Ingredients for the tart tin of 24 cm in diameter or a ring mold 26 cm in diameter.

• 250 g of sweet chestnut cream
• 250 g of chocolate 70% broken into smaller pieces
• 50 g of cubed butter plus some extra for the tart tin
• 140 ml of double cream at room temperature
• 4 eggs, separated
• 30 g of fine sugar
• 100 g of ground hazelnuts (but not too finely)
• 2 tablespoon of rum (if you can get hold of it use hazelnut Frangelico liqueur from Piedmont)
• a pinch of salt or a small squeeze of lemon juice

For decoration:

• some icing sugar
• grated chocolate

Prepare the tart tin by greasing it well from the inside and dust with flour.

Start melting the chocolate and the butter in bain marie stirring it occasionally.
In a big bowl whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale in colour.
Stir in the cream and then the hazelnuts. Once the chocolate has melted, gradually incorporate into the egg mixture and after that the alcohol of your choice.
In the meantime add a pinch of salt or the lemon juice to the egg whites and whisk them until they start to form soft peaks.
First fold a third of the whisked eggs into the chocolate and egg mixture and next fold in the rest, making sure you don’t overwork it.

Now pour everything into the prepared tin and bake for around 50 minutes in the preheated oven to 180 C.
The tart should be looking dry on the top, but inside it should be soft and moist.

Once the tart is baked, let it cool for a minimum of 1 hour before handling.

Decorate by dusting it with the icing sugar and then grate some chocolate directly on the tart.