Chocolate and Pomegranate Mousse Cake
This cakey tart is based on a family favourite from Shane Delia’s Maha. You can make your own pastry, but in my mind why would you? The contrast between the rich chocolate and the pomegranate molasses is divine. It is rich and lusciously complex. The addition of the bittersweet chocolate cuts the sweetness of the molasses. This is a wonderful winter dessert.
For this recipe, you will need an electric mixer, saucepan, stainless steel bowls (or a fancy bain marie), whisk, and silicone scraper.
Ingredients
To Serve
Seeds from a pomegranate
40 gm pine nuts
40 gm slivered pistachio
100 ml pomegranate molasses
50 ml extra-virgin olive oil
100mls sugar syrup*
*Sugar Syrup
400mg Dark Muscovado sugar
400mg water
1 roll of Careme Vanilla Bean Shortcrust Pastry
12 Amaretti biscuits
Approximately 6 eggwhites (180gm)
50 gm Billington golden caster sugar
150 gm bittersweet Callebaut dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids)
30g 70% Callebaut Dark Chocolate
85 gm butter
4 egg yolks (70gm)
Ganache
250 gm Callebaut Bittersweet dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids)
250 ml (1 cup) pure or single cream (33-35% fat content)
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Method
Preheat fan forced oven to 180C
Make the sugar syrup by gently heating the sugar and water in a sauce pan until the sugar has completely dissolved. This makes a deliciously rich sugar syrup—perfect for cocktails! Store leftover syrup in a sterilised bottle in the fridge.
Grease and line a 20cm spring form pan. Using the pan as a template, cut the pastry and place it in the base of the springform. Prick well with a fork and bake until brown – approximately 20 minutes. The pastry will shrink a little from the sides of the pan – and that’s ok. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Place the amaretti biscuits into a blender or food processor, or go old school and pop them into a clip-lock bag and crush them into crumbs. They don’t need to be too fine—irregular is good. Sprinkle these over the cooled pastry, concentrating on the gap where the pastry has shrunk. This gives a really lovely ‘other’ texture to the tart and fills the gap!
In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they are frothy and light. In small batches, add the sugar and whip until the egg white holds in little peaks. Set aside. Place the chocolate and the butter in a large stainless steel mixing bowl over a saucepan. (You want to have the bowl bigger than the pan so that steam escapes to the surrounding area and not near your chocolate. Otherwise, it will seize, and you’ll have a horrid, grainy mess.) Stir the chocolate and butter to combine and remove from the heat once completely liquid and set aside. Mix the egg yolks and fold gently through the egg white meringue. Once combined, fold the chocolate mixture in and gently mix well.
Pour this mixture over the pastry and level. Bake until you can push a cake skewer into the tart, and it comes out clean. This is about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool it in the cake tin until it reaches room temperature.
Meanwhile, make your ganache by heating the cream and the pomegranate molasses in a saucepan until simmering. Add the chocolate and stir continuously until smooth. The mixture should be glossy and unctuous. Cool a little, then pour over the chocolate mousse cake (still in the springform pan). Refrigerate until required, but best after 3-4 hours.
Gently toast the pistachios and the pinenuts and set aside. Combine the pomegranate seeds, molasses, sugar syrup and olive oil.
To serve, unlock the spring form and slide off the base onto a cutting surface. Using a chef’s knife dipped in hot water cut the cake into portions. Place portion into a bowl-style plate, ladle some syrup over the cake, and top with the toasted nuts.
