Tart London’s white chocolate, cardamom and raspberry tart

This is exactly what you want in a dessert, with a crunchy nutty base, luxurious creamy centre and a tart lift from the raspberry. White chocolate and cardamom are a match made in heaven.

Serves 12

INGREDIENTS

200g pecans

200g hazelnuts

175g unsalted butter, melted 2 pinches of sea salt 250g mascarpone 100ml double cream 300g good-quality white chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

250g raspberries

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/ gas 4. Spread both the pecans and hazelnuts out on a baking tray and roast for about 15 minutes until nicely golden. Remove and set aside to cool.

Place half the nuts in a food possessor and blitz to a fine powder, then put into a bowl. Blitz the rest of the nuts to a rough crumb, then mix with the powdered nuts. Add the melted butter and a pinch of the sea salt and stir to combine. Tip the mixture into a 23cm loosebottomed tart tin and press firmly up the sides and into the bottom of the tin. You want the base to be crunchy and quite thin, rather than a thick crust.

Chill in the fridge while you get on with the filling.

Put the mascarpone, double cream, white chocolate, vanilla and cardamom into a pan and warm over a low heat, stirring all the time to let the chocolate melt; then add a pinch of salt and remove from the heat.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the base. Return to the fridge and leave to set for about one hour.

Put the raspberries into a sieve suspended over a bowl. Use a spoon to press the raspberries through the sieve, leaving the seeds behind in the sieve. Once done, take the nearly-set tart out of the fridge and use a teaspoon to dot blobs of the raspberry puree over the tart. Turn the teaspoon over and drag the dots a little to create a pretty, swirled effect. Return to the fridge for another two hours to set completely.

Recipe from A Love of Eating, Recipes from Tart London by Lucy Carr-Ellison and Jemima Jones, Penguin Random House