Chocolate & Beer Tart

Directions

1. The Tart Crust
2. Pre-heat the oven to 210º C.
3. Combine butter, oil, water, sugar and salt in a medium-sized oven-proof bowl.
4. Place the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, until the butter starts bubbling and the edges start to just brown.
5. Remove the bowl from oven (be careful, the bowl will be hot and the mixture might sputter a bit), dump the flour into the butter (it'll make a sizzling noise) and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Transfer the dough to a 8-9 inch tart tin with a removable bottom and spread it a bit with a spatula.
7. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, keep a small piece of dough – about the size of a raspberry – aside and pat the rest into the tin with the heel of your hand. Use your fingers to press it up the sides of the tin. You could pinch the edges against the tart tin with a fork if you want.
8. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake the shell for about 15 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.
9. Remove from the oven and if there are any sizeable cracks, use the bits of reserved dough that you had kept aside, to fill in and patch them. The shell need to be cooled before filling.

1. The Chocolate-Beer Filling
2. Put the chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl.
3. Heat the cream till it starts steaming. Don’t let it boil over.
4. Pour this steaming cream over the chocolate and let stand for a minute. Stir the mixture till the chocolate melts completely.
5. Add in beer and sugar and stir till most of the sugar has dissolved.
6. Add the egg yolks one by one, stirring between each addition.
7. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the eggy mixture and stir vigorously till you’re sure there are no lumps.
8. Put the bowl over medium-low heat. And stir constantly and firmly while the mixture thickens considerably. Stirring firmly is essential because you need to make sure the bottom does not catch and the eggs don’t scramble. The mixture won’t thicken much in the oven, so you need to get it to thicken as much as you want at this point itself. It took me about 5-8 minutes on medium-low heat to reach the desirable consistency.
9. Take the mixture off heat and cool it down.
10. Pre-heat oven to 180º C.
11. When the mixture is almost at room temperature, give it a stir to break the skin that’s formed on the surface.
12. Pour the mixture into the pre-baked tart crust and pop it into the oven. After 10 minutes, turn the oven off completely and leave the tart in to cook in the residual heat. The tart comes out when the oven is completely cool.
13. Rest the tart in the refrigerator for an hour or so before digging in. Serve with a dollop of softly whipped cream.