Chocolate Lime Brulee Tart (and a happy century!)

First, a bit of blog business...

Sound the trumpet, it's my 100th post!

Ok, technically it's my 101st but who's counting? I certainly didn't and it almost passed by without so much a blip. Naughty, naughty me. It feels like eternity since my first post about seven months ago but when you look at the numbers, I'm still very much a baby in the blogging world. Nevertheless the journey to the 100th post has been nothing short of fun. Bar a few kilos that I've gained along the way but no less, it has been fabulous. A big thanks to my readers for sticking around and a huge cheers to all the bloggers I've met so far! Anyway....



As a small mark of my happy century, I give you my Chocolate Lime Brulee Tart. The chocolate being the biscuit base with the lime the zesty main star of the creamy filling. It was because of this tart that I fell in love with the unusual partnership of chocolate and lime. It was reconfirmed when I made Nigella's cheesecake and culminated recently with a Lime Spiked White Chocolate Cake.



It's one of my go-to desserts for the sugar cravings and always an old favourite if I had to make a dessert in a pinch. Recently I brought it to a food blogger lunch and thankfully it was well received (it even converted a few sceptics to the lime and chocolate tango). It has been weeks since calls for the recipe were made so without further ado...



Ingredients

250g plain chocolate biscuits (or one packet of Arnotts Ripple)
95g unsalted butter - room temperature and chopped
5 large eggs
200g caster sugar
200ml double cream
juice and finely grated zest of 3 limes (feel free to use one more if you really like it sour and tart!)
extra caster sugar

Method

1. Process the chocolate biscuits and butter until it comes together and completely mixed.

Tip: If the mixture looks a little dry and crumbly, don't be tempted to add more butter. It will be because the butter was too cold. Continue to process it and eventually the butter will warm up and the biscuit mix will be the right texture.

2. Press it into a loose bottom tart tin and up the sides (I used a 32cm rectangle tart pan). Any extra I used it to make two mini tarts.

3. Chill the biscuit base in the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes to an hour. If you're in a rush, place it in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.



4. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150°C. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined. Add cream, lime juice and zest until combined. Don't overbeat as you don't want to aerate the eggs too much.

5. Pour into the chilled biscuit base and bake for about 20 minutes but check it after 15. The tart should be just set with a slight wobble in the middle. It'll continue to set while it's cooling down so don't overbake it. In my medieval oven, it took just under 30 minutes but bear in mind that I also had a ramekin and a couple of mini tarts in with it.



6. Let the tart cool completely to room temperature. When cooled, sprinkle the caster sugar over the surface of the lime filling and blowtorch until it's hard and crackly.

It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days although the biscuit base will start to get a bit soggy so best to scoff it all on the day (I won't judge I promise!).