Farewell to a colleague with a fudgy pudgy brownie tart

Unabashed, over-the-top, bursting, crammed to the brim with chocolate and fudginess, this is a chocolate brownie lover's dream. The workplace chocolate devotees made short work of this week's Alpha Baker Fudgy Pudgy Brownie Tart, which I made late last week for a colleague's leaving morning tea. She had been particularly appreciative of my work baking contributions (most of them Alpha Baker related) and I wanted to see her off with a final cake. She was interested in learning to make cakes (coming from a non-cake baking background) but the times I showed her the recipes from the Baking Bible she was intimidated by their apparent complexity. Maybe they're not for the absolute beginner, if only because of the number of steps. Harpreet contributed delicious homemade butter chicken and naan to the morning tea so she's no cooking laggard herself (and everyone saved on lunch that day).

I'm particularly fond of anything that's not-so-sweet chocolate, and this chocolate pastry is dense with dark, bitter cocoa. That dark grittiness is what I love about brownies and this pastry (which could have just been overkill) adds another layer to that.

Who put that fingerprint in my pastry case? It was probably the person who couldn't wait until the pastry was completely chilled. I was a bit mystified by not having to blind bake this and spent quite a while peering at the recipe for the missed instructions.

I may have mentioned before that I hate chopping nuts, and I'm always looking for a shortcut. The meat tenderiser is not a bad option. As long as you don't bash the nuts too hard.

I think my tart tin was a bit smaller than recommended so the filling was a bit higher. I probably should have adjusted the baking time but it didn't occur to me at the time. It came out looking pretty handsome if I do say so myself.

The tart was pretty moist and fudgy at room temperature. It could have been slightly undercooked but no one complained. All that white and dark chocolate and added cocoa make the filling incredibly chocolatey but not too sweet.

And the pastry just seemed to meld into the brownie topping. Maybe I didn't overlook the blind baking instructions after all.

Next week we're baking White Chocolate Club Med Bread. I've just bought another 5kg bag of bread flour so I'm all set.