Chocolate Torte with Berries, Pistachios and Crème Frâiche

Ingredients

Blueberry gel

• 500g frozen blueberries
• 5g agar
• 100g sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

Vanilla crème frâiche

• 200g crème frâiche
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Chocolate torte

• 100g digestive biscuits
• 50g pistachios, chopped
• 40g unsalted butter, melted
• 170g cream
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp Kahlúa
• 110g Valrhona dark chocolate
• 50g Valrhona milk chocolate
• 50g custard

To serve

• 3 punnets fresh berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
• borage flowers

Method

For the blueberry gel

Defrost the blueberries, then purée in a blender. Pass through a fine sieve into a bowl.

Add the agar, sugar and lemon juice and place in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Warm through for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Pour into a plastic container and chill for 4 hours. Put into a blender and blend for 30 seconds on high until smooth. Put into a piping bag or squeezy bottle and refrigerate until needed.

For the vanilla crème frâiche

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk together for about 20 seconds, until smooth. Put into a piping bag and refrigerate until needed.

For the torte

For the base, in a food processor roughly process the biscuits and pistachios with the butter for a few seconds until combined.

Line a tray with greaseproof paper and put six small metal rings on it. Pack some of the base mixture into each ring about 1 cm deep. Refrigerate until set.

Put the cream, salt and Kahlúa in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes.

While the cream is standing, melt the dark and milk chocolate in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water.

Mix the custard into the cream mix and stir until combined. Add the cream to the chocolate, a little at a time, and keep incorporating until it is all mixed together. Pour into the base rings and put in the fridge to set for 3–4 hours.

To serve

Run a blowtorch or hot knife around the molds to release the tortes from the rings. Place each torte just off centre to the left of a serving plate. Add some dots of blueberry gel going down the plate, then add three dots of crème frâiche and a selection of the fresh berries, and garnish with some borage flowers.

Serves 8
Wine match: Tawny-style Port