Carrot Cake Inspired Ice Cream

I adore carrot cake, it’s possibly my favourite cake. I just love its spicy flavour, chewy raisins, little chunks of nut and how it’s all topped off with a creamy frosting – yum. I was dreaming about carrot cake and decided to see if I could make carrot cake ice cream!

“Hmmm carrot cake ice cream, I bet she crumbled up some carrot cake into her ice cream…” NOPE! I actually added all the major flavour components, separately into the ice cream base. Cinnamon, mixed spice, sultanas, pecans, lemon zest, date syrup for sweetness and… 200g of freshly grated carrot! I lightly blanched the grated carrot first to soften it and release some of its natural sweetness, no one wants to be chewing on raw carrot in their ice cream.

Now before you think I’ve gone do-lally, trust me it works. It works really well. I was so excited creating this ice cream and then seeing into come together. That first softly set spoonful was amazing. OMG best ice cream ever!

The ice cream base was just sweet enough while still retaining some of its creamy freshness which emulated the cool creamy frosting often found on carrot cake. The nuts added the occasional crunch while the sultanas went fantastically chewy and sweet, like little chips of toffee hiding in the ice cream.

The spices came through well without being overpowering and the date syrup helped give that characteristic spicy orangey-brown colour to the ice cream as well as a lovely naturally fruity sweetness. The strands of carrot themselves were soft enough not to cause a problem yet still whole enough to be detectable. They weren’t crunchy in any way, but they had retained their shape which I loved.

I just couldn’t get over how much it tasted like real carrot cake. It completely satisfied my carrot cake craving and I’m now plotting even more concoctions. Move over Ben & Jerry’s!

Carrot Cake Inspired Ice Cream

Ingredients
250g sweetened custard base (homemade or shop bought)
200ml double cream
200g carrot, peeled and grated
50g sultanas
40g pecans
75ml date syrup
2 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp cinnamon
Zest of ½ lemon

Method
Start by peeling and roughly grating your carrots. Place them in a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water, cover the top with clingfilm and cook in the microwave for 1½ minutes. Leave the clingfilm on the bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge until cold.
When reading to start, mix your custard base, double cream, date syrup, lemon zest and spices together in a bowl. Whisk gently until combined.
Roughly chop the pecans and add to the bowl along with the sultanas and blanched and chilled carrot. Add any carrot liquid to the mix too as this will contain lots of intense carrot flavour.
Stir until well incorporated before churning in your ice cream machine until thick and softly set.
Scoop out and enjoy straight away or transfer to a Tupperware box and freeze until required.
Makes about 700ml ice cream

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Keeping to the ice cream theme, I’m excited to say that the Gelateria ice cream maker on loan for a few weeks from Gaggia (after their coffee & ice cream event) arrived last week! I have been having so much fun and eating far too much ice cream! It’s almost become one of my new foods groups – protein, carbs, fruit & veg and ice cream!

I was longing to get creating wacky flavours straight away but in a moment of clarity decided it was probably wise to start at the beginning with a simple vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is apparently the nations favourite ice cream flavour, which seems a little boring in my view, but then I suppose it all comes down to the quality of the ice cream. You can get really good vanilla ice creams made with eggs, cream and real vanilla or really bad vanilla ice cream.

This vanilla ice cream is firmly in the ‘good’ category – it’s so smooth and creamy and absolutely bursting with real vanilla flavour. Just look at all those little black speckles – that’s not dirt – its vanilla!

When I came to use my vanilla pods I discovered I didn’t have any fresh squishy ones and only the brittle dry pieces that I store in my sugar. I had a brain wave and blitzed the vanilla, seeds, pod and all, in a spice grinder along with a little sugar. This transformed the dry vanilla into the most amazing vanilla pod powder. Still packed full of flavour and no wastage – hurrah.

The thing I am most impressed about with this ice cream maker is that you can lift off the entire lid covering the bowl where the ice cream is churned, even during freezing. This means you can easily pour in your ice cream mix, throw in some add-ins or sauces without having to try and drizzle it through a small spout at the top like other ice cream machines I’ve seen. This makes it far easier to check how your ice cream is progressing and actually get the mix in there in the first place without pouring it down the sides.

The resulting ice cream was amazing. Using the ground up whole vanilla pod really gave an intense vanilla flavour and I love how the little seeds were noticeably speckled throughout. It was rich, smooth and creamy thanks to the fast freeze and churn action which prevents large ice crystals from forming. Yum!

There is going to be a whole series of ice creams creations appearing shortly. I’ve already made another ice cream this weekend, inspired by one of my favourite cake flavours. Check back later in the week to see which one!

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz)

Ingredients
150g caster sugar
350ml milk
3 egg yolks
200ml double cream
½ vanilla pod (fresh or dry – see note below)

Method
Cut the vanilla in half and scrape out the seeds. Combine the seeds and pod to the milk and cream and heat together in a small saucepan until very hot but not bubbling.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Pour a little of the hot milk over the egg yolks and quickly whisk to temper the mixture and prevent it from scrambling. Add more of the milk to the egg yolks whisking all the time.
Then pour the eggy milky mixture back into the saucepan and place over a low heat. Use a silicone spatula to gently stir the mixture until it begins to thicken. This may take up to 5 minutes. Do not allow it to bubble or boil or else it will split.
The ice cream mix is ready once it coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat and pour into a clean bowl.
Allow to cool slightly before refrigerating for at least 2 hours or until chilled.
Pour the chilled ice cream into your ice cream maker (remove the vanilla pod first) and blend until frozen to the desired consistency, around 20-30minutes.
Eat straight away or transfer to a container and keep for later.

Note: After making your ice cream base, it can be poured into a Tupperware container and frozen in a regular freezer. Just remove it from the freezer every 1-2hours and give it a whisk, to ensure it freezes evenly.

Note: I found all my vanilla pods were very dry and hard as I’d stored them in some sugar. I simply broke a piece off and blitzed it in a spice grinder with a little of the sugar to create my own vanilla bean powder. This was really intense and gave a wonderful speckled vanilla appearance to the finished ice cream.

Daring Bakers May 2011: Chocolate Marquise with Coconut, Rum & Lime

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of Cook Craft Grown and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

I was incredibly excited when this month’s challenge was announced. It involved making a frozen chocolate dessert known as a marquise, accompanied by a meringue, served with a syrup and decorated with nuts. The method is quite complex, using a host of tricky and technically challenging techniques, something which always excites me – I love a challenge and the chance to learn some new kitchen skills!

Another aspect of the challenge that had me jumping up and down for joy was the fact is was naturally gluten free! Hurrah!

The recipe provided was for a peppery tequila chocolate dessert, but we were free to adapt the flavours to our own choosing. I decided to head down a more tropical route and ended up with Chocolate, Coconut, Rum & Lime!

All four flavours work together when combined in pairs, so I could see no reason why they wouldn’t all work together as a group. It turned out better than I’d hoped, the results were AMAZING! I know that sounds a bit big headed, but it was one of the best taste sensations I’ve had in a very long time. I’m longing to try and convert it into a cake combination.

Coconut was the first flavour to hit me when I took my first bite. As the frozen dessert melted in the mouth the coconut flavour mellowed out and the rich chocolate came swooping in, closely followed by a delicious combination of rum and citrusy lime. Wow. No one component overpowered the others with each one coming in layers, waiting patiently until the previous flavour had had its time in the spotlight. The rum was not too apparent, giving the dessert a ‘grown up’ sensation rather than being obviously alcoholic.

I think part of the success of the dessert was due to its incredibly smooth, soft creamy texture thanks to the large amounts of cream and egg yolks involved. It was like frozen custard in texture, even when straight out the freezer - just divine!

I also think the fact it was frozen helped keep all the flavours from jumping in at once. The chocolate and rum didn’t develop until the dessert had had time to melt a bit in the mouth, preserved in their frozen state. It softened quite quickly into an almost mousse like consistency.

The dessert was meant to be set in a large square pan and then cut into squares. I decided to also make some in a baton shaped flexible silicone ice cube mould, which I think made for a stylish presentation. I served the marquise on a blob of toasted meringue after drizzling the plate with some date syrup I found in a health food shop which lent another sweet tropical flavour. I then served it with some crush pistachios which added a little crunch and a lovely green colour which seemed fitting to tie in with the lime.

I’m not much of a meringue fan and don’t think it added much to the dish, so I probably wouldn’t make this component part again. Overall (as you can tell) my family and I adored this dessert. Yes it’s a little time consuming, but not overly difficult. The results are spectacular meaning it would be ideal for a special occasion or for when you are wanting to impress guests with your effortless domestic goddess persona.

Click to see the blogroll for other Daring Bakers take on chocolate marquise.

Chocolate Marquise with Coconut, Rum & Lime

Chocolate Base(this is half of the base of the chocolate marquise, not a component to be used on its own)
Ingredients
170g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
180ml double cream
30ml rum
30ml golden syrup
½ tsp coconut extract
15g cocoa powder
zest of 1 lime
15g unsalted butter, softened

Directions

Roughly chop the chocolate and place into a small mixing bowl.

In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch, but is not boiling. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

Allow it to sit for one minute before stirring gently to melt and combine.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

Set aside until cooled to room temperature while you make the other part of the marquise base. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture (below).

Chocolate Marquise

6 large egg yolks at room temperature
2 large eggs
75g caster sugar
40ml water
Chocolate base, barely warm (recipe above)
250ml double cream

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 - 15 minutes. (I don’t have one so used an ordinary bowl and a hand mixer!)

When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cook to softball stage (235F/115C).

With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk, not the whisk itself or the sides of the bowl.

When all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer back to high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.
When the egg mixture has cooled, add the previously prepared chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all of the air you've whipped into the eggs.

Fold a third of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining cream.

Pour into the prepared pan or individual serving moulds and cover with clingfilm, pressing it down directly onto the mixture.

Freeze until very firm, at least 4 hours (preferably 6 – 8 hours).

Torched Meringue

(If you aren't planning on serving all of the marquise at once, you can make just half or even a third of the recipe)
6 large egg whites
200g caster sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Combine the egg whites, sugar and vinegar in a heatproof bowl. Whisk together lightly until all the ingredients have combined, but don’t try and make the egg foam up.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Use a spatula to stir the mixture continuously, dipping a finger in ever so often to feel for grains of sugar in the egg whites. As the liquid heats up, the sugar will slowly dissolve and the egg whites will thicken. This step is complete when you don't feel any more sugar crystals in the liquid and it is uniformly warm, nearly hot.

Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and pour into a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (I don’t have one so used an ordinary bowl and a hand mixer). Whisk until you reach soft peaks. In the last 10 seconds of mixing, add the vanilla to the meringue and mix thoroughly. Set aside until ready to use. Can be done 1-2hours in advance.

To Serve

Chopped pistachio nuts

Cocoa powder for dusting

Date syrup for drizzling

Assembly

Drizzle your serving plates with some of the date syrup. Arrange a blob of meringue onto the plate and toast lightly with a blowtorch to form a lightly golden top crust (optional).

Remove the marquise from the freezer, (do this 15 minutes before serving if cutting up a big one, or not at all if you’ve made individual servings). While it's still hard, remove it from the pan by pulling on the parchment 'handles' or by flipping it over onto another piece of parchment.

Cut it into cubes and dust them in cocoa powder. These will start to melt almost immediately, so don't do this step until all of your other plating components (meringue, syrup, nuts) are ready.

Arrange the dessert on the plate and scatter over the chopped nuts.

Serve immediately.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cheesecake with Raspberry Balsamic Swirl

Happy Easter everyone. Today is not only Easter Sunday, but also my birthday! One of the main birthday treats, often involves birthday cake, but I’ve been baking and eating a lot of cake recently, so this year I decided I wanted something a little different and decided on a birthday cheesecake – it still has ‘cake’ in the title.

I adore cheesecake but for some reason never bake them that often. A few months back I saw Nigella Lawson make a peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake on tv, and its been on my mind ever since, pestering me to bake it. The only slight problem was that the rest of my family are not really peanut butter fans, but I thought ‘it’s my birthday and if they don’t like it, well all the more for me.’

Using Nigella’s recipe as a starting point, I adapted it to suit my own tastes. I’m not a fan of biscuit bases, I find their crumbly gritty texture detracts from the smooth creaminess of the cheesecake, so instead I baked a thin layer of chocolate roulade sponge directly into the tin, before adding the peanut butter cheesecake mix on top. I had a slight culinary set back when my hand mixer broke just as I was about to make the sponge base. I had to whisk and egg and sugar together for 10 minutes until ribbons formed using an old fashioned rotary whisk – it certainly gave the arm muscles a work out!

To further enhance the peanut butter element I also added a couple of crumbled peanut butter cups which added some delicious chunks dotted throughout the cheesecake.

I also love the combination of red fruits and jam with both peanut butter and chocolate and so decided to incorporate all three into my cheesecake. I had a little bottle of raspberry balsamic vinegar glaze sitting on the side which I used to add a decorative swirl to the top the cheesecake. The swirl alone looked pretty, but a few strokes with a pointy knife transformed the swirl into a feathery flower effect. (If you can’t find a balsamic glaze, just heat a few spoonfuls of raspberry preserve and stir in 1 tbsp good quality aged balsamic vinegar.)

I love how this baked and set into the top of the cheesecake, I think it looks striking against the creamy cheesecake background. My cheesecake cracked a little on cooling, but if you notice it only cracked along the outer edge of the feather effect, which actually made it look quite attractive and my family thought I had done intentionally – hurrah!

The finished cheesecake was everything I’d hoped it would be. Smooth and creamy with an indulgent rich peanut taste. The chunks of peanut butter cups added bursts of sweet melty chocolate with the slightly salty peanut filling giving the perfect contrast. This too worked wonderfully with the fruity intensely flavoured raspberry balsamic.

The thin chocolate sponge base added a whisper of chocolate flavour, while its light soft texture didn’t detract from the ultra smooth cheesecake top. Mmmmm divine!

It was so good that I must confess I was a bit greedy and had a slice at lunchtime and another after dinner. I also polished off the leftover bits from my brothers plate who tried a slice to be kind, but admitted it wasn’t for him. Oh well, I don’t feel too guilty, it was my birthday afterall, plus this means all the more for me – what a shame. It’s certainly a ‘must’ for peanut butter fan.

Today is my actual birthday, although I celebrated it with my family yesterday due to everyone having other Easter day engagements planned. Hence the reason I had my birthday ‘cake’ a day early too!

Peanut Butter Birthday Cheesecake with Raspberry Balsamic Swirl

Chocolate Sponge Base
10g buckwheat flour
10g cocoa powder
1 egg
40g caster sugar
1 tsp water

Peanut Butter Cheesecake
350g cream cheese
80ml sour cream
180g smooth peanut butter
3 eggs
120g caster sugar
3 peanut butter cups

Decoration
Raspberry Balsamic glaze
OR
2 tbsp raspberry preserve
1 tbsp good quality aged balsamic vinegar

Method – Chocolate Sponge Base

Grease an 8inch/20cm deep springform tin and line the base with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 190C.
Whisk the egg and sugar together until thick and ribbons form on the surface when you lift the beaters out of the mix, around 5 minutes.
Sift over the cocoa powder and flour and fold in gently using a spatula or metal spoon until no streaks remain. Fold in the water. Do not over mix.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin (it will be only a thin layer) and bake for 7 minutes until set and slightly puffy.
Leave in the tin to cool and reduce the oven temperature to 170C.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Beat the sugar and cream cheese together until soft and well combined. This is easiest to do if the cream cheese is at room temperature. Heat it for 30seconds in the microwave, on low, if you’ve taken it straight from the fridge.
Beat in the peanut butter, beating until no lumps remain.
Add the sour cream and eggs and whisk once more. The batter will be fairly runny, but should be a smooth even colour.
Chop the peanut butter cups into chunks and stir through the batter.
Pour the cheesecake mix on top of the cooled chocolate sponge base.
Drizzle over a swirl of the raspberry balsamic glaze. Use the tip of a sharp knife to drag the swirl out towards the edges, starting from the centre, at each quarter (think N, S, E & W on a compass). In-between these four lines (NE, SE, SW & NW), drag the knife in towards the centre to create the ripple/feather effect.
Bake in the 170C oven for 45 minutes until just set and a little wobble remains.
Turn off the heat, but leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door propped half open for 30 minutes to allow it to relax and cool down gradually.
Then remove for the oven and leave to cool for an hour before placing in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Raspberry Balsamic Glaze

Use a premade fruity balsamic glaze or melt the raspberry preserve in a small pan until liquid. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir until combined. Drizzle over the top of the cheesecake batter and swirl as above of leave in blobs.

Flourless Chocolate Mocha Mud Torte

It was Mothering Sunday here in the UK yesterday, which meant all the family gathered together to enjoy some family time and Mum appreciation. We spent the day together including a traditional Sunday afternoon walk through nearby woodland followed by a full blown Sunday roast cooked by dad and me. Of course, no family gathering would be complete without something sweet and tasty for afternoon tea or dessert and on this occasion it turned out to be this wickedly indulgent chocolate torte.

This torte originally started out life destined to be something else, but things didn’t go according to plan (always check you have all the necessary ingredients in stock!) and I had to improvise. I’d made a chocolate ganache base that I’d flavoured with coffee to enhance the chocolatiness but then I got stuck. I decided to try and turn the ganache into a flourless chocolate cake. I separated some eggs, made the whites into meringue, folded everything together, put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

It puffed up and rose spectacularly in the oven before sinking down into a gooey fudgy chocolate cake once taken out. However, this is how most flourless chocolate cakes turn out so I wasn’t disappointed. The taste of this cake is about as far from disappointment as you could get – it’s fantastic!

We ate a taster slice a few hours after it was first baked, when it was only just cool. The texture was like a softly set mousse, very light but incredibly chocolaty. The coffee comes through later, not overpowering the chocolate, only adding to its rich dark flavour.

After the torte has rested for a few hours the top surface developed a slightly crisp, fragile crust while the underneath became sticky and fudgy, like the best sort of brownie you can imagine. Mmmm it was divine. Far better than my original plan for the ganache.

There is very little added sugar and no flour, nuts or grain of any kind, meaning the chocolate can really be the star of the show. You want to use a good quality high percentage dark chocolate to really get that coco hit.

Small slice are all that’s needed for an instant chocolate high and a mood enhancing boost.

Flourless Chocolate Mocha Mud Torte

Ingredients
250g dark chocolate 65-70% cocoa solids
300ml double cream
3 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp milk
30g golden syrup
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method
Line an 8inch deep springform tin with a sheet of silicone paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Heat the milk and coffee granules together in the microwave until the coffee has dissolved. Break the chocolate into small chunks and place into a saucepan along with the dissolved coffee, double cream and golden syrup.
Heat gently, stirring often, until the chocolate has completely dissolved into the cream. Do not allow to boil.
Remove from the heat, and stir to make sure everything is well combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place into separate bowls. Beat the egg whites until fluffy, opaque and just starting to hold a soft peak. While still whisking, add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time until you achieve a thick glossy meringue.
Beat the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture, mixing quickly.
Add a third of the meringue to the chocolate mix, and fold in use a large spoon or spatula, making sure to reach right to the bottom of the pan.
Add the rest of the meringue, and fold in gently until just combined. Don’t over mix.
Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and place in the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes.
The mix will puff up and rise to the top of the tin and crack during baking. This is normal. When the top has formed a crust and is darker around the edges, remove the cake from the oven.
Allow to cool completely (it will collapse and sink – this is fine) before running a knife around the edge and removing from the pan.
Dust with cocoa powder and serve.
Serve slightly warm for a soft mousse texture, or leave to rest for a few hours to achieve more of a truffle-brownie texture.

Chocolate Cheesecake Cheese-Fake GF & DF

A few weeks back I was set a challenge – could I make a gluten and dairy free cheesecake? Ermm yikes! Gluten free wasn’t going to be a problem as you can now buy gluten free digestive style biscuits in most supermarkets, but dairy free? Take the cheese and cream out a cheesecake and you’re left with a few biscuit crumbs and some eggs.

After my initial moment of panic, I remembered the delicious cheeseless cheesecake I made a few months back using yoghurt. Yoghurt obviously still contains dairy, but I knew that dairy free soya yoghurt was now readily available and it got me wondering if this would also work baked into a cheesecake. Only one way to find out!

I used sunflower spread with the crushed gluten free biscuit crumbs to form the base for my cheesecake which worked well. Just make sure your biscuits are also dairy free, as some I found weren’t. I decided to make the cheesecake a chocolate cheesecake as pretty much everything chocolaty tastes good, and I thought it would also mask any potentially odd flavours that might arise from the soya yoghurt.

The batter for the cheesecake was a little runny, but apart from that, came together well without splitting or curdling. It baked perfectly, with a smooth, slightly glossy surface and after a dusting of cocoa powder it was unrecognisable from the real thing, at least by appearances sake.

On slicing, it cut very cleanly, too cleanly really, as there was no thick creaminess to stick the mixture to the knife, but this can’t really be viewed as a negative. It was lightly speckled with flecks of chocolate where I obviously hadn’t mixed it sufficiently, but this added to its appeal.

Now came the vital bit – the taste! It was….ok, good, but not great. It ate well and had a good chocolate flavour but it just seemed to be lacking something. After several bites I decided what it was lacking was the creamy mouthfeel, essentially the dairy that helps give a cheesecake its thick sticky creaminess in the mouth.

The flavour of the cheesecake was great while you were eating, but seemed to dissolve into nothing the minute you swallowed. There was no lingering flavour or creaminess coating your mouth. It just sort of went. The friend who’d given me the challenge loved it – so I suppose it was good considering it was gluten and dairy free, but I don’t think things should be judged ‘good considering they’re…’ I think they should taste good to everyone, gluten/dairy free or not.

So my experiment has revealed that yes it is possible to produce a gluten and dairy free cheesecake, but without further experiments I’m not sure it was worth it. Maybe it was the soya or just the complete lack of dairy? Anyone got any ideas how to improve the creaminess without adding dairy?

Chocolate Cheesecake Cheese-Fake GF & DF

Ingredients – Biscuit Base
125g gluten & dairy free digestive style biscuits
50g Pure dairy free margarine

Cheesecake
500g Alpro soya yoghurt
50g caster sugar
75g dark dairy free chocolate
20g cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 tbsp cornflour

Method
Line a 6-6.5inch round springform tin with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 160C.
Place the biscuits into a strong plastic bag and beat it with a rolling pin until the biscuits are broken in crumbs.
Melt the margarine in a large bowl, add the biscuits crumbs and stir well to mix. Spread the buttery crumbs into the base of the tin and press down firmly to form a even layer. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the topping.
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, cornflour and cocoa powder together until well combined.
Pour in the yoghurt and beat to combine, followed by the eggs.
Melt the chocolate and whip into the yoghurt mixture.
Pour the mix over the chilled biscuit base and bake for 1hour – 1hour 10 minutes until slightly puffed and set around the edges, but still wobbly in the centre.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 1½ hours before chilling in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
When ready to serve, run a hot sharp knife around the rim of the tin to help release it from the sides.
Dust with a little extra cocoa powder and serve.