You might have seen my recipe for Dark Chocolate Teacakes using Mr Toms but I chose to reinvent the way in which I used it in a bit of an experiment to make my Nuts for Chocolate Tart.

Mr Tom is essentially a peanut praline bar and so I decided to crush it up into a powder and use it as a dry ingredient in the chocolate frangipane. This was a bit of an experiment but the texture of the tart was reminiscent of a Bakewell tart except with the flavour of chocolate.

Margarine and sugar are creamed together before the egg is mixed in and the ground almonds, cocoa powder and Mr Tom powder are folded through with a drop of almond extract. I like to finish the tarts off with a chocolate topping of simply melted chocolate with single cream. It sets softer than a ganache made with double cream for a cleaner finish.

Again because the tarts are so small, the frangipane cooks quicker than the pastry would so I have to blind bake the pastry. You can read the full details of both how I line my tart tins as well as how I blind bake my pastry by clicking here.

1 pack of ready rolled shortcrust pastry

100g margarine

80g granulated sugar

2 eggs

60g ground almonds

1 x 40g Mr Tom bar, crushed up into a fine powder

1 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

¼ tsp almond extract

50ml single cream

50g dark chocolate, broken up into pieces

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.

Fill your tart tins with the pastry as detailed above, rerolling any excess to the same thickness. Any gaps in your pastry can be patched up with the pastry. Line with foil as above and fill with weights.

Place the tarts into the preheated oven and turn the temperature down to 180˚C and bake blind for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, remove the foil and weights and return to the oven for 5 minutes until the base is slightly golden.

Prepare the chocolate frangipane by beating together the margarine with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved slightly. Add in the eggs one by one and beat until incorporated. Then fold through all of the ground almonds, Mr Tom powder and sifted cocoa powder with the almond extract until it forms a frangipane batter. It will look lumpy because of the ground almonds.

Spread a layer of the frangipane all the way to the top of each blind baked pastry case. Bake the tarts for around 12 – 15 minutes until the frangipane feels spongy on top and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tarts for 20 minutes before lifting out of the cases.

Prepare the ganache by heating up the cream until it is above body temperature. This is easiest in the microwave in a bowl for 1 minute. Add in the chocolate and leave for 3 minutes before stirring the ganache until it is smooth and shiny. Spread over the ganache in a layer over the frangipane and leave to set. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.