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Ancho Chilli Chocolate Tart Recipe

Difficulty:
Yield: 10 Tarts
Working Time: 1 hour
This recipe contains: Tree Nuts, Eggs, Gluten, Dairy

Ingredients

FOR THE TART SHELLS

Unsalted Butter, room temp, 250g

Granulated Sugar 100g

Eggs 1

Rye Flour, sifted 140g

Cocoa Rouge Cocoa Powder 85 g

 

FOR THE ANCHO GANACHE

450ml double cream

500g La Premiere Etoile 58% Cacao

2 dried ancho chillies

 

FOR THE SZECHUAN GANACHE (or, optional double ancho mix instead!) 

450ml double cream

500g La Premiere Etoiler 58% Cacao

Szechuan chilli oil (to taste - I used around 4 tsp)

 

FOR THE SMOKED NUTS

2 handfuls of applewood/hickory wood chips, soaked in a little bit of water.

handful good quality large walnuts.

Directions

FOR THE TART SHELLS

Combine flour and cocoa evenly in a bowl and set aside

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy - (1-2 mins)

Add the egg & mix just to combine. Scrape down your bowl

Add the flour and cocoa and mix to combine evenly

Wrap in cling film and chill your dough for a minimum of 2 hours, preferably overnight

When ready to roll, bring the pastry out and leave to soften until you're just able to roll it, don’t leave it to get too soft as it is quite a wet dough. Roll your pastry out on a lightly floured surface to around 4mm thickness and cut rings of dough to fit your pastry ring of choice. 

Return to the fridge for another hour, then trim the edges and line each tart shell with a square of baking paper, filled to the brim with pastry weights (or a substitute like raw chickpeas).

I keep all my trimmings from this method and rest, then bake them on a separate tray to use as garnish later on (sealed airtight they keep well for a week.

Bake for 35 mins or until crisp throughout.

Allow to cool completely while you make your ganache.

 

FOR THE ANCHO GANACHE

Heat the cream with the chillies in a heavy bottomed saucepan until just bubbling. then tip it over your chocolate. Leave it to melt completely and then stir until combined.

Blitz gently to break up the lumps of chilli and set to one side.

Doing this a day ahead will give you lots more flavour from the chillies, just leave it in the fridge overnight.

 

FOR THE SZECHUAN GANACHE (or, optional double ancho mix instead!) 

Heat the cream with the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan until just bubbling. then tip it over your chocolate. Leave it to melt completely and then stir until combined.

Scoop your ancho ganache into the base of your cooled tart shells, pour over the szechuan ganache for a smooth finish. Then transfer to the fridge to set completely.

 

FOR THE SMOKED NUTS

Over a low heat, add the chips to a heavy bottomed saucepan for around 10 mins until they stop steaming and you start to smell smoke.

Wrap your nuts in a tin foil ‘pouch’ with a few holes either side and attach this to the top of the pan (so they aren’t touching the chips). wrap the whole pan in more tin foil and leave to smoke over a medium heat for around 20 mins. You can always test the nuts to see when they are done (smoky enough for you).

Once smoked and cool, temper a little bit of chocolate and coat the nuts (I add a dash of Malden - note these are a really delicious winter snack on their own). Then brush the set chocolate nuts with a bit of edible gold (optional)

 

Finish your set tarts with a gold nut and some of the chocolate crumble and serve!