Our Christmas shares - Italian chocolate tarts

Nicki and I recently travelled to Italy to help facilitate an Account Manager programme. This was the third of three modules across an 11-month period and the culmination of everything participants had learnt so far.

They spent three very intense days working as teams role-playing scenarios with procurement experts and fictitious prospective clients before finally, on day 3, pitching to the c-suite themselves.

Once the final pitch had finished and the winning team announced, the prosecco was poured and we all retreated to our seats in the sunshine – it was truly a celebration of all the participants had achieved together.

For me, this was by far the most challenging and rewarding programme to have worked on during my time at The Juniper Company. Rome was beautiful, the food was divine, and nothing was too much trouble at our Chateau Forme hotel.

And the highlight of my week? Sweet talking my way into the kitchen to ask the pastry chef for some of his recipes. I’m told many had tried that week, but I was the only one to succeed… clearly, I’d been paying attention during the influencing session!

As this is the season for sharing, I thought I would share this easy, but oh-so-delicious chocolate tart recipe with you all. My housemates love it and I hope your family will, too – it’s perfect for a quick, but impressive, Christmas snack!

Tortina al cioccolato (makes approximately 15 small tarts)

Ingredients:

75% Dark Chocolate – 150g

Plain flour – 20g (sifted)

Icing sugar – 90g (and extra for the topping)

Butter – 80g (and extra for greasing)

Cocoa powder – 10g

3 egg whites

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 cupcake tins (not muffin tins)

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees
2. Grease your cupcake tins with butter
3. Melt the butter and chocolate together (quick tip – microwave is fine for this, just check on it every 30 seconds!)
4. Whisk the egg whites, yolks, icing sugar and vanilla essence together
5. Mix in the chocolate and butter mixture
6. Sieve to flour and cocoa, then add to the mixture
7. Pour in to the cupcake tin then bake in the middle shelves of the oven for 10 minutes.
8. Take out of the oven and leave to cool in trays
9. Once cool to touch, remove from tin by twisting (so as not to break them)
10. Leave to cool completely on wire tray
11. Once completely cool, sprinkle with icing sugar
12. Enjoy!

These are very rich, but a great crowd-pleaser – let me know how you get on!