Rosemary chocolate plump torte
Red Wine chocolate torte with rosemary poached port plums
[yasr_visitor_votes]Recipe byCatherine Fulvio
Chocolate, Rosemary, Port and Plums – what more can you say? Celebrate! This is a lovely rich dessert, fabulous visually but most importantly, oh so tasty! The rosemary gives a lovely edge to the plums.
Ingredients
- For rosemary plums:
- 5 medium sprigs of rosemary
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 400ml water
- 6 plums, halved and stones removed
- 4 tbsp. port
- For the chocolate torte:
- 200g dark chocolate drops
- 180g butter
- 120g golden caster sugar
- 50g plain flour
- 50g ground almonds
- 4 tbsp. red wine
- 5 eggs
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- For the ganache :
- 100g chocolate
- 100ml double cream
- 12 small rosemary sprigs, for decorating
- 4 tbsp. red wine
- 2 tbsp. caster sugar, to sprinkle on the parchment for rolling
- Icing sugar, for dusting
Preparation
To prepare the plums, place the sugar, port and water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer rapidly for 5 minutes. Add the plums to the saucepan with the rosemary and simmer gently for about 4 minutes until just tender but still keep their shape.
Remove the plums with a slotted spoon and set aside on a clean plate and simmer the syrup rapidly until it reduces by two thirds. Allow the syrup to cool and return the plums into the syrup.
To make the torte, preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Brush the sides of a 20cm spring form tin with melted butter and line the base with parchment. Wrap a piece of foil around the outside of the tin and sit it in a deep roasting tin. Place the butter, chocolate and red wine into a bain marie (a ceramic bowl over a saucepan of simmering water).
Whisk the eggs in a mixer and add the sugar gradually until tripled in volume. Add the butter chocolate mixture into the egg mix. Then fold in the flour, ground almonds and a pinch of cinnamon into the mix. Pour into the prepared spring form tin and transfer to the preheated oven. Add about a litre of boiling water to the roasting tin.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until just set. The torte should have a slight “wobble” to the top. Transfer to a cooling rack, unwrap the foil and leave to cool completely.
To make the ganache, add the chocolate, cream and wine into a medium saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring from time to time. Leave to cool completely. When the torte is cold, slide it onto a cake stand and spread the ganache over the top.
Carefully place the poached plum halves on top, drizzle over a little syrup. Arrange sprigs of rosemary around the outside of the torte, dust with a little icing sugar and serve.
Winter Tips to add Rosemary to your recipe
Use rosemary stalk as barbeque sticks to flavour meat.
Rosemary sprigs can be used under a roasting joint of lamb to infuse flavour.
For beautiful tea cookies, fan 3 needles on raw butter or sugar cookie dough slices before baking.
Puree the leaves with olive oil and use as a dipping sauce for bread.
Add 1 tbsp chopped rosemary to 500ml milk and warm it gently until almost boiling. Cover and allow to cool then, strain and use for custards and bread and butter pudding.