Vegan chocolate and raspberry torte

This recipe is another original creation of ours.  Chocolate torte is a great dessert to make for a dinner party; it’s quite quick and easy to prepare but always delivers bags of flavour and has a rich and luxurious feeling to it that is sure to please your guests.  This recipe is vegan but if you aren’t worried about being dairy free then you can use regular cream and regular digestives, although we actually prefer this vegan version.  We made this for a friend of ours who has to have a gluten and dairy-free diet and we managed to make it both by using ‘free from’ digestives – she really liked it and couldn’t believe that it didn’t contain wheat or dairy.

One of the reasons we like this pudding so much is the addition of the raspberries.  Chocolate and raspberry were made for each other and the sweet sharpness of the berries really balances out the richness of the chocolate.  We use olive oil and clementine juice in the base to substitute for the traditional melted butter and this adds another subtle background flavour that helps to elevate the dish.  This recipe is basically a really good way to make an impressive dessert without having to spend hours in the kitchen – a real win win!

We've used Lindt chocolate in the recipe but you can use any good quality 70% chocolate, including some of the premium supermarket own brands.  You might want to double check the ingredients, in our experience chocolate that has a 70% cocoa content won't contain dairy but it's best to be extra sure.

Ingredients (Serves 6-8):

300g 70% dark chocolate

3tbsp soya cream (or other dairy free cream)

2.5tbsp icing sugar

150g raspberries

150g vegan digestive biscuits

Juice of one clementine

2tbsp olive oil

Preparation/cooking time: 45 minutes plus at least 1-2 hours to set

Line a spring-form cake tin or similar with greaseproof paper – only the sides need lining, the bottom doesn’t need to be lined.  If you don’t have a suitable tin then you could use a shallow pie dish but this is a little trickier to serve from and the torte won’t be able to stand alone.

Begin by crushing your 150g of digestive biscuits into a fine crumb.  If you can’t find vegan digestives very easily then other biscuits can substitute, your best bet would be Hobnobs which are vegan and easily available.  Ginger nuts could work but may bring too strong a flavour.  We usually place the biscuits in a sandwich bag, seal and then bash with a rolling pin.  You want the crumbs to be fine, although a few slightly bigger lumps won’t hurt.  Add the crushed biscuits, olive oil and clementine juice to a bowl and mix thoroughly so that all of the crumbs are moistened slightly.  You don’t want them to be soggy, just a touch of moisture to help them bind to form a base.  Put the crumbs into the bottom of your tin and then press them down firmly with a clean spoon or your hand (which also needs to be clean!).

Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on the top of your base and weigh down with cans or other heavy items and then place in the fridge for 30 minutes.  This will help the base to firm up and set into a solid biscuit layer.  Whilst the base is setting, break your chocolate up into small pieces and place in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water along with the vegan cream and icing sugar.  The icing sugar (known as confectioner’s sugar in the U.S.) takes the edge off the bitterness of the chocolate, without it there wouldn’t be enough sweetness in the torte as you would have bitter chocolate and sharp raspberry.  Icing sugar works best as it is a powder and so doesn’t need to dissolve; the chocolate shouldn’t get hot enough to dissolve either caster or granulated sugar and this would leave a grainy texture.

Stir the mixture constantly and be careful not to overheat it as this can cause the mix to become grainy – if this looks like it is happening, remove from the heat and add a dash more cream and stir thoroughly, this should bring it back.

When the chocolate has completely melted, remove the bowl from the heat and whilst the ganache is still warm, stir in three quarters of your raspberries, leaving about 8-12 to decorate the top.  Stir them in vigorously so they start to break up and give them a bash with the spoon to help them along.  One of the things that works nicely in this recipe is that the berries are marbled through the chocolate.

Remove the base from the fridge and remove the greaseproof paper that’s covering the biscuit layer.  Pour over the chocolate and raspberry mixture and spread it over the base to create an even distribution of the topping.  Allow to cool on the side for 30 minutes before transferring to the fridge.  The torte then needs to be left to set for about an hour, although it can be made in advance and left overnight, which is often easier if you are making it for a dinner party – you can focus on the rest of the meal on the night knowing you don’t have to worry about your pudding!

When you are ready to serve, remove the torte from the tin and transfer on to a plate to serve.  Decorate the top however you wish with your remaining raspberries.  You will see in the picture that the top of the torte looks bumpy, this is partly down to the raspberries in the mix however if you’d like a smoother surface on top use a hot palette knife and run this over the surface to create a more even appearance before placing back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up.  Serve with a drizzle of vegan cream or vegan vanilla ice cream (or dairy equivalents if you wish).

We hope you love this recipe as much as we do.  Please email us or comment on this blog post with any questions and if you do decide to make the recipe we’d really love to hear from you.