This is a classic and a favourite with our guests. It is easy to reproduce at home. Our presentation in the hotel has many components, but you can just garnish it with orange segments and serve with cream or ice-cream. You can replace orange zest with lemon, if you want more zing.
The chocolate we use for this recipe is Cacao Barry’s 70 per cent Fleur de Cao, but you can use any rich, dark chocolate, as you will need the bitterness to complement the citrus. You will need at 24-centimetre tart tin.
Daniel Willimont is executive head chef at Farnham Estate Spa & Golf Resort in Cavan.
CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE TART
Makes one
Ingredients
For the pastry:
250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
50g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter straight from the fridge
1 vanilla pod (optional)
2 egg yolks
1 splash of milk
For the ganache (filling):
360mls heavy cream (I suggest double cream is the best to use)
430g dark chocolate at least 60 per cent cocoa solids
20g of Irish salted butter
Zest of 2 medium-size oranges (keep the segments of one orange for garnish)
Method
1 Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl or mixer. Chop the butter into cubes, then using your fingertips, gently work it the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs or simply turn the mixer on low using a paddle attachment. Scrape out and add the seeds from the vanilla pod (if using). Mix again.
2 Beat the egg yolk with the milk, then add this to the dry mixture and gently work it together until it forms a ball of dough. Remember not to work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short. Wrap the dough in clingfilm. Place it into the fridge to rest for at least 40 minutes.
3 Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour, then carefully roll out the pastry, turning it every so often, until it's about half a centimetre thick.
4 Carefully roll the pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it carefully over an oiled tin. Ease the pastry into the tin, making sure you push it into all the sides. Trim off any excess by running a knife along the top of the pastry case, then prick the base of the case all over with a fork and pop it into the freezer for 30 minutes.
5 Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, or gas mark 4.
6 Get yourself a large, square piece of greaseproof paper, scrunch it up, then unwrap it and use it to line your pastry case, pushing it right into the sides. Fill the case right up to the top with rice or dried beans and bake blind for 10 minutes in the oven.
7 Take the case out, carefully remove the rice/bean and greaseproof paper (you can save the rice/beans to use for blind baking another time), then return the case to the oven to cook for a further 10 minutes until it's firm and almost biscuit-like. Leave to cool.
8 To make the ganache: Bring the cream to a soft boil in a heavy-based saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add chopped chocolate pieces into the cream stirring constantly. Use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until all the pieces are melted and you have a rich ganache. Add the butter and work it to a shiny, velvet texture. Add the zest from a washed orange (to remove the wax).
9 Pour the mixture into your tart case and leave to cool. Serve with either whipped cream or ice-cream and orange segments.
Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland, who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome
