Chocolate tart with crème pâtissière and blueberries

This chocolate tart with crème pâtissière and blueberries is a delicious seasonal dessert featuring a crisp cocoa pastry case, silky vanilla crème pâtissière, and a generous layer of fresh blueberries. The rich cocoa pastry pairs beautifully with the smooth vanilla custard, while the slightly tart berries add freshness and balance. It’s a perfect summer tart, but you can easily make it with other seasonal berries too – try it with raspberries or blackberries :).

Ingredients for the chocolate shortcrust pastry:

• 175 g plain flour
• 30 g cocoa powder
• 125 g cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1 large egg yolk
• 50 g caster sugar
• a generous pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips (or pulse in a food processor) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, sugar, salt and cold water, then quickly bring the dough together. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 30–60 minutes.

Grease and lightly flour a 23 cm tart tin, shaking out any excess flour. Roll the chilled pastry to about 3 mm thick and line the tin. Freeze for 10 minutes, or chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Lightly dust the pastry with flour, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans (or dried beans or rice).

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Reduce the temperature to 180°C and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and baking beans, then bake for a further 10 minutes, or until the pastry is fully baked. Leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for the vanilla custard (crème pâtissière):

• 400 ml milk
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• 4 large egg yolks
• 70 g caster sugar
• 25 g plain flour
• 25 g cornflour
• 50 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

Bring the milk and vanilla seeds to the boil in a saucepan, then immediately remove from the heat.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the flour and cornflour and beat until smooth. Gradually whisk in 100 ml of the hot milk. Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk and whisk until smooth. Return to a medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard comes to the boil. Simmer for about 1 minute, stirring continuously, until thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until fully melted and incorporated.

Pour the warm custard into the cooled tart shell. Cover the surface directly with cling film and leave to cool at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate for several hours until completely chilled.

Additionally:

• 350 g fresh blueberries

Scatter the blueberries evenly over the chilled custard.

Remove the tart from the refrigerator about 1 hour before serving, allowing the pastry to soften slightly. Decorate with fresh mint or basil leaves, if desired.

Store the tart in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!