I’m not normally much of a dessert person, so I tend to fall back on reliable favourites for when one is called for, such as when my best friend comes to stay for the weekend. This is not a torte by the traditional meaning of the word because it’s not a cake, but it naturally has a well defined, smooth finish and does involve a little bit of layering. Also, The BBC have a recipe for this too, so I’m sticking by the name. I find that the combination of flavours work well when brought together, but individually the caramel is way too sweet and the chocolate can be too bitter for many people and it disappears quickly enough so what the heck.

Ingredients

Serves about 8 people, each portion contains about 3/4 of a bajillion calories.

150g oaty biscuits
75g butter
1 can of Carnation Caramel (397g)
1 to 1.5 tsp of good quality sea salt flakes
200g dark chocolate, 65-75% cocoa solids. Extra marks are available if you use choc with cocoa nibs or bits of chopped up roasted coffee bean
400ml double cream
Half a packet of Maltesers

I use a 7 inch cake tin with a removable base, many people prefer modern springforms.

Method

Line the base and sides of the cake tin with greaseproof paper

Bash up the biscuits inside a plastic bag with a rolling pin, frying pan or half-brick. Melt the butter and stir them together, then press into a tight layer in the bottom of the tin.

Take two tablespoons of the caramel, stir through a teaspoon of cream and set it aside for decorating later.

Heat up the cream to 50-60 degrees, then break the chocolate into it and stir a lot until it’s all dissolved. After a couple of minutes of stirring, the mixture will turn a lovely smooth brown. Keep stirring until it’s cool enough to start to hold its shape.

Whilst that’s chilling down to 30-35 degrees C, you can stir the sea salt flakes into the caramel. It’s very easy to over-mix this, it needs to be able to keep its shape so you might have to chill the caramel for 5 minutes after stirring it. Dollop it into the middle of the buttery biscuit base and make sure you leave a clear inch around the outside so that you get a good chocolate finish.

Pour the chocolate ganache evenly and gently over the top and gently shake it to get a flat surface.

If you’ve got a sharp enough knife, cut the Maltesers in half and push them just slightly into the surface so they stay in place.

Chill it in the fridge overnight to make sure it’s fully set.

To decorate the top, put the reserved caramel cream mix into the corner of a freezer bag and snip the tiniest hole in the corner with sharp scissors. Gently pipe a pattern onto the top.

Cross section of the torte

A fully swirled torte