This showstopping Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tart is made from shortcrust pastry, chocolate Crème pâtissière and fresh raspberries. It's a delicious dessert that will wow your guests.

Delicious desserts

No meal is complete without a delicious dessert. I don't care what form it comes in as long as it's something sweet. (A vegan cheeseboard comes after...)

Chocolate is always a crowd-pleaser so for today's recipe I've flavoured crème pâtissière with cocoa powder to add some bitter, richness to an elegant raspberry tart. The circles of raspberries make this dessert the perfect centrepiece at the end of a meal.

You could serve each slice by itself or add some whipped cream for extra decadence. It's pudding so there's no such thing as going over the top.

How to make a Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

There are two key skills you have to master to be able to make this tart: pastry making, and creme patisserie.

How to make vegan shortcrust pastry pie crust

They say cold hands and a warm heart make the best pastry, that's because cold hands are essential to making the perfect pastry. Let me break down the steps and you'll see why.

The first step when making vegan shortcrust pastry is to rub the fat into the flour. You need to do this delicately by just rubbing the two together between your finger tips. If your hands are hot then the fat will melt (which we don't want!) So keep your hands cool.

The next step is to add your liquid and bring the breadcrumb-like texture together into a ball. Don't be tempted to add more liquid, keep working the mix in your bowl and you will see it eventually come together.

The next step is one of the most important - let the pastry dough rest. This means covering it and putting it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. If your pastry is cold when it is rolled out, shaped and then ultimately baked, you are less likely to experience the pastry shrinking - something we want to avoid or there will be less room for our filling!

Rolling out the pastry is relatively easy, but the next tricky step is getting the pastry into the tin. Drape it into the tin carefully and then begin pushing it down into the corners of the tin. Do this ever so carefully lifting and moving the excess pastry as you go.

Once the tin is lined with the pastry you can remove the excess by simply rolling your rolling pin over the top of the tin! Nifty trick right?

The pastry case then needs to be "blind baked". This means it gets lined with baking paper, filled with baking beans and then baked. This ensures you have a crisp, golden pastry case that keeps its shape and doesn't puff up. Once it begins to go golden you can remove the baking beans and baking paper and let it finish cooking uncovered.

And there you have it, a perfect vegan shortcrust pastry pie crust.

How to make vegan crème pâtissière

Our vegan shortcrust pastry pie crust is filled with a rich chocolate crème pâtissière.

crème pâtissière (also known as "creme pat" or "pastry cream") is traditionally a rich custard filling used for a whole range of different cakes, tarts and other patisserie.

Of course, being vegan, we can't make custard using eggs, milk and/or cream so we have to improvise! Instead we use cornflour as a thickener which still gives us that rich, silky texture without the egg. Instead of milk and cream we simply use plant milk. To make it chocolate-y we add cocoa powder.

The process for making vegan crème pâtissière is very simple and surprisingly quick.

All you need to do is whisk together the cornflour, cocoa powder and plant milk until smooth (top tip, add the milk to the cornflour and cocoa powder bit by bit). You then heat it over a low heat, whisking constantly until you've reached the desired consistency. For the recipe we want it to hold its shape when piped.

When its cooled down we'll use it to fill our vegan shortcrust pastry pie crust then top with the fresh raspberries!

The recipe