Sam's Cupcakery

Chocolate Toothpaste Tart

What exactly is chocolate toothpaste tart I hear you ask? Well, it’s a school pudding, but judging on people’s reactions when I’ve spoken about it, it was only ever served in a few select areas of the country… It’s an oddly named pudding, but most likely named because it reflects the consistency of the chocolate “paste” in the tart. It was one of my favourite desserts at school, albeit, not particularly healthy (no wonder they stopped serving it, along with the turkey twizzlers!) 

After some googling, I found a good recipe here – on my first attempt, I followed it exactly but I’ve since made it again and changed some of the amounts slightly to cater better for my taste…

This recipe is enough to make a tart for a 9-inch loose-based tart/flan tin (similar to this tin).

For the sweet pastry (or you can buy a pre-made pastry case):

• 165g plain flour
• 25g ground almonds
• 120g chilled unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 egg

For the chocolate toothpaste:

• 60g unsalted butter (room temp)
• 135g caster sugar
• 20g hot chocolate powder
• 20g cocoa powder
• 230g powdered milk
• 150ml hot water (not boiling)

1. Sift plain flour and add ground almonds, mixing well. Add cubes of butter and rub in with fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add in caster sugar and mix well.
2. Add the egg and work it into the mixture with your fingers until a soft dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm, leaving to chill for 30 minutes – if the dough is a bit sticky, don’t worry because the chill time will sort it out.
3. Once chilled, preheat the oven to 200C (fan-assisted) and lightly flour a clean work surface to begin rolling out the dough. If you have a loose based tin, place the dough on top of the tin base and roll it out to an even thickness, larger than the size of the base. Once the dough is ready, gently fold the pastry surrounding the tin base inwards, so it is on the base. You should be able to lift the base and drop it gently into the tin.
4. Gently press the folded-over pastry into the corners, pressing the overhang lightly over the rim of the tin, as it will shrink whilst it bakes (you can trim away the excess once it comes out of the oven). It’s a good idea to put the tin on top of a large baking tray so the overhanging pastry doesn’t tear whilst in the oven. Using a fork, make small holes all over the pastry to prevent it bubbling. Bake in the oven for 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Once baked, leave to cool in the tin and make the chocolate toothpaste.
5. Cream together butter and caster sugar until smooth, then add hot chocolate and cocoa powder, mixing together well.
6. In a separate bowl (I suggest a large bowl rather than a measuring jug), whisk together the powdered milk and hot water making sure to take out any lumps – this may be a difficult job, so don’t worry if it is a little lumpy!
7. Add the powdered milk mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Pour into the pastry case and leave to set in the fridge. Depending on how runny you like the tart, you can keep it in the fridge for a longer/shorter period of time. Serve with whipped cream if you have any!

It’s quite a simple recipe, especially if you end up using pre-made pastry cases (although I have found that you may need more than one case because they are quite small, or you can just make less chocolate paste). Brings back a lot of school dinner memories! What were your favourite school puddings?