Looking for a show stopping dessert to try at home? This rich and chocolatey cardamom and hazelnut tart is tricky to master, but well worth your while and will no doubt win you praise and applause from your guests.

It comes from British chocolate brand Montezuma’s, known for their delightful packaging and heady concoctions (we particularly like their white chocolate, strawberries and champagne truffles), who have recently released a selection of sweet recipes and chocolate cooking tips called Montezuma’s Moments on their Instagram. 

This chocolate, cardamom and hazelnut tart has been dreamed up with cook, food writer and influencer Rosie Birkett, who has loads of experience using chocolate in her recipes. 

“Cooking at home is all about just giving it a go and having some fun,” she says to stylist.co.uk.

“It doesn’t get much more joyful than cooking with chocolate. You can’t go too far wrong if you start with great quality chocolate that’s ethically sourced and made from the best available ingredients. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries with flavours, too, because the beauty of Montezuma’s is that it’s wonderfully versatile and really fun to experiment with. Go on, get stuck in!”

So, make the kitchen your domain for an hour or so and try your hand at this seriously gorgeous chocolate tart recipe.

How to make a chocolate, cardamom and hazelnut tart

Ingredients for the hazelnut pastry

• 50g blanched hazelnuts
• 200g spelt flour (we prefer 100g wholegrain and 100g white)
• 20g icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 90g chilled butter, cubed
• 1 egg yolk
• 1-2 tbsp iced water

Ingredients for the filling

• 100ml milk
• 10 cardamom pods, bashed
• 130g dark chocolate
• 50g milk chocolate
• 240g crème fraiche
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp ground cardamom

1. Prepare a 20cm, loose-bottomed tart tin. To make the pastry, blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor, until coarsely chopped. Add in the flours, sugar and salt and pulse again to mix.

2. Slide in the butter and blitz to a breadcrumb consistency. Add in the egg yolk and one tablespoon of the iced water and pulse to bind, adding the rest of the water if you need to, to bring the dough together.

3. Once it’s sticking together, but not feeling sticky, tip it out onto a work surface and bring it together into a smooth ball. Press down to a disc and then, between sheets of baking paper, because it will be very short and crumbly, roll it out to a circle that’s bigger than your tart tin and about the thickness of a pound coin.

4. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to one hour.

5. Heat the oven to 170°C fan. Put the bashed cardamom pods into the milk and bring to just below the boil on a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to cool and infuse.

6. Take the pastry out of the fridge and run your hands over the baking paper to warm it up a little bit, as the butter will have stiffened in the fridge - you want it pliable. Use a rolling pin to transfer the pastry to the tart tin, then line it, patching up any tears, and prick the base with a fork.

7. Line with one of the pieces of baking paper you used to roll it out, fill it with baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and beans and bake for another ten minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 15°C.

8. To make the filling, set up a bain marie with a couple of inches of water in a pan over a medium heat. Break your chocolate into a metal or glass bowl and place it over the pan, so that the bottom isn’t touching the water. Melt the chocolate together, stirring. Take it off the heat when it’s two thirds melted and stir to finish the melting. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

9. Strain the milk into the crème fraiche and whisk to combine, then stir this through the melted chocolate. Crack in the eggs, pour in the remaining cardamom and whisk together to form a smooth custard. Pour this into the tart case and bake for 22-25 minutes, until set but still with a very slight wobble.

10. Allow to cool, then chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. Slice and serve with raspberries.

Images: Getty /  Montezuma and Rosie Birkett