Chocolate Velvet Torte

By á-646

Rich Chocolatey pastry cream fills a flaky crust for an easy -but-elegant final course. Start with Pepperidge Farms Pastry Sheets to make this dessert foolproof, and garnish each serving with fresh berries. You can also use a shortbread crust.

Ingredients

• 1/2 of a 17.3-ounce (490 grams) package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
• ALTERNATIVELY you could make a shortbread crust.
• 16 ounces (450 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups fresh raspberries OR strawberries

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 30mins
Cooking time 170mins

Preparation

Step 1

Heat the oven to 425°F.

Prepare pie crust.
Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 12-inch square. Cut off the corners to make a circle. Press the pastry into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Prick the pastry with a fork.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Let the pastry cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Heat and stir the chocolate and cream in a 1 litre heavy saucepan over low heat until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir some chocolate mixture into the egg yolk. Return the egg mixture to the remaining chocolate mixture. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pastry crust. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Top the torte with the raspberries or garnish with raspberry coulis.

TIP: Stirring a bit of the warm chocolate mixture into the egg before adding it to the rest of the chocolate is an important step called "tempering". Tempering keeps the egg from scrambling and the filling smooth.