Susan Jung's recipe for chocolate and salted caramel terrine

This is a great dessert to make in advance and would be a delicious and elegant ending for holiday meals. It's quite rich and intense, so even though it doesn't look that big, it should be enough to feed eight to 10 diners.

This recipe, like some of my other favourites, exists because of a mistake. I wanted to make a dessert terrine based on an existing recipe for chocolate caramel mousse lightened with a large quantity of whipped cream and stabilised with gelatin. I didn't use enough whipped cream and, after I'd poured the mixture into the mould, I realised that although I had bloomed the gelatin, it was still sitting there, in a bowl on the counter; I'd forgotten to stir it into the ingredients. It was too late to do anything about it, so I chilled the terrine and served it. To my surprise, it was still sliceable. The chocolate flavour was faint, though, so I doubled the amount and came up with this recipe. It needs several hours to chill and, once it's cold, you can't leave it out at room temperature for very long or it will become too soft.

The croquant absorbs moisture quickly, so don't make it too far in advance.