Hoxton Street Monster Supplies recipe : Night Terror Torte (aka Chocolate Orange Torte)

I've been telling you about the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook (don't miss my giveaway where you can win three copies) which is full of ghoulish monster treats, that have been adapted for humans.

The Madhouse kids squealed in horrified delight as I read the names of some of the dishes - maggot brownies, snot tart, earwax pie, ... - but we decided to make Night Terror Torte. The recipe instructions explain : "Be sure to think truly appalling thoughts as you make this torte - you will find that the screams of your victims will have an extra edge of misery if you do". Delightful - not ! The torte was though :)

Night Terror Torte (aka Chocolate Orange Torte)

ingredients :

200g caster sugar

4tbsp water

2 oranges, thinly sliced

475g sweet shortcrust pastry

100g butter

100g ground almonds (I used Ready Brek instead)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

100g dark chocolate

Put 100g of sugar with the water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Finely slice the oranges, with the peel left on (blood oranges would have looked terrifically gory here !) and lay them out in the pan. Cook for 30 minutes over a low heat, turning and separating them every now and then.

Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 24cm pie tin, lined with baking parchment . Lay another sheet of baking parchment on top, fill with baking beans and bake blind for 12 minutes.

Cream together the butter and remaining sugar, then mix in the ground almonds. As I still have oodles of Ready Break in the cupboard and it has a similar texture, I used that instead.

Mix in the eggs.

Melt the chocolate and pour it in then give it a good stir.

Remove the ten best orange slices from the pan. 

Chop the rest into pieces and add to the mixture.

Press the chocolate filling into the pastry case.

Lay the crystallised orange slices over the top and bake at 180° for 30 minutes. Leave for half an hour to cool before removing from the tin.

This used up some more of my Ready Brek so I'm adding it to this month's #KitchenClearout linky.