Blood Orange Chocolate Ganache Tart

For The Pastry:

• 250g Plain flour
• 100g Icing sugar
• 30g Cocoa powder, we use Billington’s
• Pinch of Malden sea salt
• 150g Cold unsalted butter, cubed or grated and refrigerated
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1 Egg

For The Ganache:

• 300ml Cream
• 300g Dark chocolate
• Zest and juice of 2 blood oranges

For The Pastry:

By Hand:

1. Sift the flour, icing sugar, cocoa and salt from a height onto a cool, clean, dry surface. Add the butter and work into the flour – work towards the middle, rubbing the mixture between your thumb and fingers but handling it as little as possible – until it resembles rough breadcrumbs.
2. Whisk together the egg and yolks and add them to the mix slowly – with your flavouring, if using – and use a cold knife to bing together into a ball of dough, taking care not to over-mix. Remember, you might not need to use all of the liquid for the dough to come together. Flour lightly, pat into a flat round and wrap in clingfilm.
3. Refrigerate overnight if possible, or for a minimum of an hour. Take the dough out of the fridge an hour before you need to roll it.

In A Food Processor Or Stand Mixer:

1.  Chill the mixing bowl and correct pastry attachment in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Sift the flour, icing sugar, cocoa and salt into a large bowl, add the butter, then cover with a plate and transfer to the freezer for 10 minutes.
3. Transfer to your food processor or stand mixer and combine in quick pulses to just bring it to the breadcrumbs stage.
4. Combine the eggs and add gradually to the mixture until it comes together as a dough. Be careful, you might not need all of the eggs.
5. Refrigerate overnight if possible, or for a minimum of an hour. Take the dough out of the fridge an hour before you need to roll it.

Next:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan-assisted / Gas Mark 4)
2. Bring the pastry to a temperature (just leave it out of the fridge until its ready) where it is soft enough to roll and roll out to about 3mm thickness.
3. Cut rounds to fit your prepared cupcake/muffin tray or tart shells, allowing extra to cover the sides – approximately 10cm rounds for a standard cupcake tray. Press these carefully into the cavities and refrigerate for around 30 minutes.
4. Line the empty shells with baking paper, weigh down with baking beans (or a substitute like raw chickpeas) and blind bake for 15-20 minutes, or until starting to brown and baked through.
5. Remove from the oven to cool completely. You can brush the cooled shells with some melted dark chocolate – this will help prevent the filling from making the pastry soggy later on.
6. Add in the juiced oranges to the cream and then heat until it starts to simmer. Your aim is to heat the cream until it’s just hot enough to melt chocolate but not much hotter, so keep a close eye on it and don’t allow it to boil – it’s ready when it starts to bubble up just at the edge.
7. Remove from the heat and pour over the bowl of chocolate, stirring to bring together and melt the chocolate, forming an emulsion.
8. Fold in the zest.
9. Then pour into the shells – fill each all the way to the brim. It’s helpful to pour the mixture into a jug which can then be poured into the shells.
10. Place in the fridge to set – approx 1 hour.
11. For these we added on some paint spattered dark chocolate pieces and chocolate crumble to decorate. But you can decorate yours any way you like. We would love to see what you come up with!

[TIP: If your ganache splits, add some chilled cream and whisk hard to try to bring the emulsion back together]