Vegan Spiced Sweet Potato and Chocolate Tart

You heard it. Chuck out ya pumpkins, sweet potatoes make an incredible filling for any tart or pie. In this recipe, we've mixed spices, orange and dark chocolate to create a mousse-like filling that is honestly fool proof to make. And since pastry isn't our forte, we've used Zucker & Jagdwurst's vegan short-crust pastry recipe which is seriously indistinguishable from the real stuff.

Serves: 8-10

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Pastry ingredients & method

Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 regular sweet potatoes

• 1/4 soy milk (if needed)

• 200g dark chocolate (we recommend 70-80%)

• 3 tbsp cocoa powder

• 4 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tsp nutmeg

• Juice 1/2 orange

• Zest 1 orange

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract (keep in mind vanilla essence is much more concentrated)

• 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

• While the pastry is chilling in the fridge, peel and roughly chop the potatoes. Add them to a pot of boiling water and cook until soft

• Drain the water from the pot. Mash the potatoes (you can use a stick-blender) until smooth

• Preheat the oven to 180°C

• Break up and melt the chocolate (using either the microwave or a bowl over a pot of boiling water). Add it to the potato mash and fold quickly until the chocolate is evenly distributed

• Now add the cocoa, spices, vanilla, salt, orange juice and zest. Fold

• If you find the filling is dry and grainy, add the soy milk (make sure not to thin the mixture too much)

• Now roll out the pastry to approximately 1 cm thick. Grease a round tart tin (we used one approx 25cm wide) well with spray oil or margarine, and then lay the pastry over, pressing it down to the edges

• What you're going to do now is blind-bake the pastry before adding the filling. Take a sheet of baking paper and lay it over the pastry. Put a heat-proof ramekin or 1 cup of dry beans or rice over the paper (make sure the sheet is large enough to ensure the beans or rice do NOT touch the pastry). This will prevent the bottom from puffing up

• Bake the pastry for 30 minutes or until golden

• Let the pastry cool and then spoon in the filling

• Place the tart in the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes (you may also warm it up in the oven if you prefer)

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