Hello, today I’m going to show you something that is very chocolatey and a little sour at the same time, bringing the freshness of spring. This is my favorite layered cream pie, with blackberry cream on top of a simple yet rich chocolate ganache. The crust is to be baked but then you just have to cook and pour the fillings. The vivid color of blackberry will attract everyone to taste it, and there are endless possibilities of decoration. I used berries, cookies made from leftover crust, chocolate lines drawn on top, candied violets and tiny meringues. Just to give you an idea, I made a large pie with both chocolate and blackberry cream, and a few small tarts, one of them filled with chocolate (smoked Maldon salt on top) and the other with blackberry cream only.

In fact, making the chocolate ganache is so easy that if you long for a quick but delicious late night treat, think about this recipe, you can use store-bought, ready-to-bake crust, and besides you only need chocolate and double cream, that’s it. You may boost it with a pinch of salt. If it works with caramel why should not it work with chocolate?

Step 1: You Will Need

Ingredients:

Crust:

340 g flour

50 g almonds

200 g cold butter

1 egg

1 egg yolk

100 g sugar

a pinch of salt

Blackberry cream:

450g blackberry puree (we preserved part of last years produce by blending and freezing)

3 leafs of gelatin

90 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste

150 g Greek yogurt

150 g double cream

2 spoonful of orange juice

zest of 1 orange

Chocolate ganache:

250 g dark chocolate

250 g double cream

Decoration:

blackberries, or any other berries

tiny meringues

candied violets - see:https://www.instructables.com/id/Candied-Violets/

chocolate

smoked Maldon salt

Tools:

Stand mixer

Rolling pin

parchment paper

pie form

baking rings

spatula

Step 2: The Crust

Put the almonds and the sugar into a food processor, grind it.

Place the flour, salt, almonds and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, give it a stir. Dice the butter, add it to the mixture, mix until crumbles are formed. Add the egg and the egg yolk, keep mixing until your dough is more or less combined.

Transfer it onto a piece of parchment paper, form it into a ball. Wrap it into the parchment paper, flatten it a bit and it goes into the fridge for 30- 60 minutes.

Step 3: Prep for Baking

Take your dough out of the fridge, gather your forms (I used a big 28 cm diameter round pan and 3 smaller dessert rings two of them 6, one 8 cms in diameter).

Grease your forms. (I used butter and flour, you may use baking spray if you wish).

I usually roll the dough on a piece of parchment paper, it has multiple advantages:

- you can use the very same piece you wrapped the dough in while cooling,

- no need to clean the countertop (or it is easier),

- dough can be easily transferred into the form just by putting your forearm underneath and laying it over onto the form.

Fold the crust into the forms. I love to use dessert rings. They are ideal to make individual pies and it is a good way to use any surplus dough. I made a short video on how to transfer the dough into the dessert rings. No big deal!

Prick the crust with the tines of a fork, put them into the freezer (I'm not joking) for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius.

Step 4:

Bake the crusts until golden brown (in my oven the small ones needed about 15 minutes, the big one 23-25 minutes. The dessert rings can be easily removed.

Step 5: Blackberry Cream

1. Soak the gelatin leafs in cold water.

2. Using an electric whisk, beat the double cream until stiff peaks are formed then place it in the fridge.

3. Put the blackberry puree and the sugar in a saucepan, heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Don't boil.

4. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin.

5. One by one, add it into the blackberry mixture and stir until it dissolves completely. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

6-7.Then add yogurt, orange juice and peel, vanilla, put it into the fridge until the gelatin starts to work.

8. The test is that if you pull your finger on the back of the spoon, the path of your finger remains visible for a few seconds.

9. Fold in the whipped cream.

Step 6: Chocolate Ganache

Heat the double cream in a saucepan until hot (it does not have to be boiling), then pour it over on your chocolate chips. This way, the chocolate will melt really gently. Wait a couple of minutes for the ganache to cool.

Step 7: Filling the Crusts

Take your crusts, fill them with with chocolate. I intended to make a pure chocolate mini pie with smoked Maldon salt on top, so I filled one of the small crusts completely and filled an other small one plus the big one about half way, so that blackberry cream could go on top. Shaking the pies gently helps the ganache spread evenly. Put the pies filled with chocolate into the fridge for about an hour for the ganache to stabilize.

When the chocolate has hardened, it's time for blackberry cream. Pour if on top of the chocolate ganache for layered pies and you can also make no - chocolate blackberry pies like I did with one of the mini - pies.

Step 8: Decoration Prepping

I still had some leftover dough, that I used for decoration. No fuss, I cut a few leafs and flowers using a cookie cutter, bent the leafs on a wooden spoon handle, applied egg wash and baked them (180 Celsius, until golden brown).

Step 9: Let's Play

Now that your pies are ready, let your imagination fly. I used berries, candied violets, cookies, meringues for deco. You can decorate the pie itself, but in case of mini pies decoration on the plate looks also gorgeous. I made the chocolate lines with a plastic tube - (see the last photo) I have no idea whet the proper name is in English - I gently melted chocolate and butter in the ratio 2:1 in the microwave).