A recent trip to Lakeland resulted in the spontaneous purchase of a rectangular tart tin. My first thought was to make a nice veggie tart, and then I decided that a Snickers tart would be way more fun.

I got loads of inspiration for this bake off of Pinterest and then sort of made it up as I went along based off of what I already know of a Snickers bar.

Interestingly, in my search for inspiration for the Snicker’s Tart I came across a recipe for a Snicker’s ‘Pie’, that caused shockwaves when first concocted by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2006 for being the ‘unhealthiest recipe in the world’. The Food Commission who made this claim, stated that one serving of the pie contains over 1,250 Calories, nearly 22 teaspoons of fat and 11 teaspoons of sugar. As a result of this, the BBC actually had to remove it from it’s website for a while so as not to be seen promoting a ‘lethal’ dessert. Oh dear.

But fear not, while the Snickers Pie requires 5 Snickers Bars, Marscapone, Philadelphia and puff pastry, the Snickers Tart is a much healthier alternative (well what wouldn’t be). It’s got nuts and dark chocolate in it and those are healthy (ish) right? As the wise man once said… Chocolate comes from cocoa which comes out of a tree.That makes it a plant. Therefore, chocolate counts as salad. The End.

Prep Time: 2 hours including chilling time

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

For the Pastry:

200g plain flour

Pinch of salt

100g Unsalted butter

50g Caster sugar

1 Medium egg

Few drops of vanilla extract

For the Filling:

50g Butter

50g Dark Muscavado Sugar

1 Tin of Carnation Condensed Milk

100g of Dark Chocolate

100g of Double Cream

500g of Roasted Peanuts

Method:

1.Set the oven to 180°C/ 350 F/ Gas Mark 4.

2. To make the pastry…Measure out all of your ingredients then sieve the flour, caster sugar and salt into a bowl. Cut your butter into chunks then add it to the flour and salt.

3. Rub the butter into the flour, sugar and salt mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then add the egg and vanilla extract. Use a knife to mix all the ingredients together until it starts to come together. Then use your hand to bring the rest of the mixture together into a ball.

4. Place your ball of pastry into a freezer bag and put it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

5. Once your pastry is chilled, roll it out and place it in your pastry tin and prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork.

6. Now put it back in to the fridge to chill for a further 15 minutes.

7.Take the pasty out of the fridge. Then place a sheet of baking parchment on top of your pastry and scatter baking beans, rice or coins on top to weigh the pastry down

8. Bake like this for 15 minutes then lift out the parchment paper and return your pastry case to the oven for a further 10 minutes until it goes golden brown. One it reaches this stage you can take it out, leave it to cool and make a start on your filling!

9. To make the filling… Place all of the ingredients into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.

10. Bring to the boil while stirring and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 2 minutes while still stirring continuously.

11. Remove from the heat and then pour into a bowl.

12. Toast your peanuts by placing them in a hot frying pan. Keep stirring them and once you see them start to go brown, remove them from the heat. It is better to remove them from the heat earlier rather than later, as you don’t want the peanuts to burn.

13. Add 400g of peanuts to the caramel sauce, mix well and then pour into the pastry base.

14. To make the ganache topping,heat the cream up in a saucepan and remove from the heat as soon as it reaches boiling point.

15. Then break up the chocolate and add it to the hot cream. Stir continually until all of the chocolate has melted and you are left with a smooth ganache.

16. Pour the ganache over the caramel layer and spread evenly.

17. Sprinkle with the remaining peanuts.