Chocolate Bavarian Pie

Cook Time 30 minutes plus overnight chilling

Servings make 1 pie

Ingredients

Cocoa Crumb

170g plain chocolate cookies

20g Dutch cocoa powder

Pinch of fine sea salt

60g unsalted butter, squidgy soft

Bavarian Filling

40g good dark chocolate (60–70% cocoa), chopped

40g caster sugar + 20g for the meringue

7g Dutch cocoa powder

½ tsp (3g) gelatine powder

10g cornflour

¼ tsp (1g) instant coffee powder

Pinch of fine sea salt

2 eggs, separated

190g/ml full-fat milk

Pinch of cream of tartar

320g/ml cream (45% milk fat)

5g vanilla paste

Cooking oil spray

Topping

50g good dark chocolate (60–70% cocoa)

Method

Place the chocolate into a large bowl and set aside. Whip the cream and keep chilled until later.

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cocoa powder, gelatine, cornflour, instant coffee and salt. Add the yolks and enough milk to whisk a smooth paste. Pour in the remaining milk and whisk well to combine. Scrape the mix into a saucepan and whisk constantly over a medium–high heat for about 2 minutes until the custard is thick and just starts to bubble. Scrape the custard over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate melts. Then whisk occasionally and scrape down the side of the bowl from time to time until the filling cools to 25ºC.

While the filling cools, whizz the chocolate cookies with the other crumb ingredients until it feels like damp sand. Press it firmly into the base only (no sides) of a 24 cm loose bottomed tart tin, sprayed with cooking oil.

When the custard is almost cool, whip the cream and keep chilled. Make a meringue by whipping the egg whites, cream of tartar and 20g sugar together for 2 minutes until stiff and glossy.

To complete the filling, fold the meringue in then fold in just 120g of whipped cream (the rest is for the topping) and vanilla until the mix is a uniform chocolate brown colour. Scrape onto the prepared crumb base – the filling should come to just under the top of the tin. Smooth the top lightly and spray with a bare mist of cooking oil. Lightly press a piece of plastic wrap on the top of the filling to prevent a rubbery skin forming. Chill to set overnight.

Remove the plastic wrap and smooth the reserved whipped cream on top to completely fill the tin. Whizz the chocolate to make a fine chocolate rubble and scatter on top. Remove from the tin and serve chilled.