Monday 5 April 2010

Chocolate & Orange Tart


A few months ago I had the good fortune of being invited, along with a few fellow food bloggers, to an evening of chocolate tasting with the inimitable Paul A. Young at his quaint shop in Camden Passage, Islington.

A revelation! That's what the whole, marvellous evening was - a revelation. I've eaten my fair share of chocolate in my time, but I'm no chocoholic - far from it. I certainly don't go weak at the knees at the sight of a chocolate fondant like one friend I can think of, nor am I an habitual eater of the chocolate bars us Brits have a love affair with (if we are to agree with Jay Rayner's recent musings on the humble chocolate bar).

But for the first time I learnt what it is that I do like and why, what flavours work for me and what I'll be steering clear of in future. The winner by a country mile for me being dark chocolate made from Madagascan beans (in particular the Valrhona Manjari 64%) - fruity, mouthwatering (literally!), citrus flavours. Delicious!

Ever since then, having learnt the difference the type of chocolate you use can make to a recipe, I've been meaning to create a recipe to do Madagascan dark chocolate justice. A few weeks ago I finally got around to trying the confit orange recipe from Paul A. Young's recent book - Adventures with Chocolate - which inspired me to make this Chocolate & Orange Tart. The addition of a little orange zest to the sweet pastry works brilliantly with the rich Madagascan chocolate filling.


You can read all about the different chocolate we tasted that evening in great detail on my friend and fellow food blogger's blog Kavey Eats. We ate a LOT of chocolate...


Ingredients

Sweet Pastry

8oz plain flour
4oz cold unsalted butter (cubed)
1oz icing sugar (sifted)
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
zest of 1 orange (finely grated)

Chocolate Filling

6oz single origin Madagascan dark chocolate
4 oz unsalted butter
2oz golden caster sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks

Decoration

Confit orange peel (I used the recipe in Paul A. Young's book Adventures with Chocolate which worked really well)

Method

To make the pastry, mix the flour and butter in a food processor until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to mix for a short time until the pastry forms a soft ball. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for at least half an hour, then roll out to about 4mm thick to line a greased 9 inch fluted tart tin and chill again (you can pop it in the freezer if you're short on time).

Put the tart tin on a baking tray and blind bake the pastry case for around 20 minutes at approximately 180C (depending on your oven). You can do this by laying a piece of baking parchment inside the pastry case and filling it with baking beans (or just some uncooked pulses or rice if you don't have the fancy baking beans). Remove the paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Whilst the pastry case is baking, prepare the chocolate filling. Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar, whole egg and egg yolks until pale and fluffy (the easiest way to do this is with an electric beater if you have one as it takes longer than you think). Once the chocolate and butter has melted, take off the heat and leave to cool slightly before mixing gently into the egg mixture until combined.

Once the pastry case is cooked, turn the oven down to 170C. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pastry case and bake for 5 – 6 minutes. Put the tart on a wire rack to cool. When the tin is cool enough to handle, remove the tart from the tin and leave on the wire wrack to cool.

Decorate with confit orange peel and serve with caramelised oranges or lightly whipped cream.

15 comments:

  1. This looks soooo delicious! Mmmmmmmmmm!

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  2. I am so jealous! Lucky you ;0)
    The tart looks great too.

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  3. That tart looks delicious, and so neat too. I'm not a huge chocolate fan but that evening at Paul A Young's certainly changed my mind about it.

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  4. This looks lovely, chocolate and orange is definitely my favourite combination.

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  5. Nice combo- orange + Manjari! Enjoyed the link to Jay Rayner's post as well, but I think I'll stick with Valrhona over the stuff he was buying :)

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  6. Wow looks fantastic. I love the combination of chocolate and orange which is probably why I always eat Terry's chocolate oranges at christmas!

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  7. Orange and chocolate go so well together, one of my favourite combo with chili. You should try the Hot Chocolate and Basil Fondant, they are to die for

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  8. Wow, that is beautiful and absolutely gorgeous.

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  9. Kavey, Chele, Food Urchin, aforkfulofspaghetti, Divina Pe - Thank you all so much for your lovely comments! It was indeed super tasty, but very rich too.

    Kerri, Gourmet Chick, Mathilde - I love the chocolate and orange combo too. My favourite chocolate as a child was Terry's Chocolate Orange and my parents once bought me a giant one for Christmas! This is sort of the 'grown up' version I guess...!

    Lizzie - I'm with you on that evening changing my mind on chocolate. We learnt loads didn't we? I've been splashing out on chocolate a bit more since then now that I know more what to buy.

    Matcha Chocolat - Thank you! I'll be steering clear of most of Jay's purchases too (with the exception of course of Terrys Chocolate Orange and a few others - Fry's Chocolate Cream being one of my favourites and not easy to get hold of!).

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  10. These are beautiful photos! What camera do you use?

    Your Gourmand Compatriot

    GG

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  11. I'm with Chele - I'm jealous AND you're not even a chocolate fan! The tart looks lovely and sounds delicious. I have Paul's book and the confit recipe is one I've got my eye on.

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  12. a beautiful tart. must have been such a wonderful evening. i am a fan of Valrhona's chocolates- they are my fave. and with orange- fantastic. x shayma

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  13. GG - Thanks for the compliment! These photos were taken with our Canon 40D DSLR so the camera does most of the work to be fair...!

    Choclette / Shayma - It was an amazing evening and so kind of Paul to invite us along and share his wealth of experience! I'd do it again and again!

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