Choko Tarte Tartin

Turn your humble chokos into a fancy dessert!

This Choko Tarte Tartin is a collision of two worlds, combining Nana Ling's old-fashioned "Mock Pears" recipe and the classic French Tarte Tartin.

Nana Ling's choko recipe

Chokos have a mild taste, and can take on the flavours of the other ingredients used in a dish.

So it's no surprise that they are often used as a substitute ingredient. In this recipe, Nana Ling records two variations for turning chokos into pears!

These recipes are great on their own, however here I've taken the first recipe and added another step to turn it into something a little more fancy.

Ingredients for Choko Tarte Tartin

You'll need one kilogram of chokos to make up this tart.

You'll also need:

• sugar
• cloves
• cinnamon stick
• honey
• water
• unsalted butter
• sheet frozen puff pastry.

Preparing the chokos

Peel the chokos using a vegetable peeler and then cut into halves length-wise. Remove the seed using a sharp knife and also use the knife to remove any final pieces of skin from the fruit.

Cut the chokos in half again (and in half an extra time if using larger chokos) and place in a saucepan.

Add sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick, honey and water and then bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool a little and then remove the choko pieces from the saucepan. Discard the rest of the contents of the saucepan.

Using an iron skillet or heavy-based (and oven-proof to 180 degrees) frypan, add sugar and stir over medium heat until sugar melts and turns an amber colour. This should take only a few minutes.

Stir in the cold butter cubes until melted and mixture is smooth.

Place chokos on top of sugar and butter mixture in the frypan in a round circular pattern.

Brush some of the melted butter on top of the chokos.

Trim the corners from the pastry sheet to form a rounder shape and then place the pastry sheet on top of the chokos.

Using the end of a spoon or butter knife, tuck the edges of the pastry under the chokos to form a crust for your tart. Brush the pastry with the rest of the melted butter.

Place the oven-proof skillet or frypan into the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Allow to cool a little before placing a plate on top and inverting tart onto plate. If the tart cools completely, place on the stove again to warm a little before attempting to invert the tart onto a plate.

Enjoy cold or warm with fresh berries and cream.

Want more choko recipes?

Find 15 fabulous choko recipes here.