Posh Pie (it's chocolate)

I missed out on making the Baking Bible's Posh Pie with the Alpha Bakers last year. I wanted to try and catch up since it looked luscious and of course chocolatey. The Posh Pie is a chocolate tart with a biscuit crumb base, chocolate mousse filling and shiny cocoa glaze.

My pie didn't turn out looking all that posh but it certainly was shiny. A bit of bling can fix anything. The pie was very nice but I think I need to make it again to tweak a few things and get it right. It also took quite a lot of time and energy. I'm not sure this pie was, but maybe posh pie 2.0 would be worth it.

The biscuits. It's kind of unbelievable that anyone would be masochistic enough to make biscuits just to grind them into crumbs. But that's what I did. This could be my first and only time and not just because it goes against the grain to crush biscuits you've sweated over. I also found this biscuit dough quite difficult to deal with. It was very sticky and melted after very little time out of the fridge. I think I'd probably choose an easier chocolate butter biscuit if I did it again.

I thought I might have packed the biscuit crumb in too hard by the time I finished but it was so crumbly it seemed to be the only way to compact it. Next time I might cook the biscuits a little less so they're softer and thus make softer crumbs. Or just buy some nice chocolate biscuits.

I love this type of mousse-like filling, and prefer it to buttercream filling for cakes. It's rich but not as sweet generally. I'm not a fan of using gelatin usually but if you're not serving the cake or tart immediately (or you live in a hot climate) you probably do need to use it. I might try a bit less next time or use leaf gelatin which I think gives a softer, less jelly-like finish. 

I don't have any photos of making the glaze because it was late by the time I got to that point. It was easy to mix up and poured on with no trouble.

I took this tart to work. It was very difficult to get the base out of the bowl. By the time a few pieces had been hacked off for hungry workmates the tart looked a bit messy. Most seemed to like it although no one raved. One person said it was too rich. He's never getting another piece of cake.

I'm making the Pink Pearl Lady Cake this weekend which means I'm making fondant icing. This is something I'd never bother to try otherwise, but being part of the Alpha Baker's is all about trying out new things...and then complaining when they don't work out.