Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Trawling through Twitter last Sunday afternoon, I discovered it was World Baking Day. Of course, I couldn't let an opportunity to bake pass me by, so I got out my cookbooks and started searching for inspiration. I eventually decided upon a chocolate and hazelnut tart.

This recipe came from The Great British Bake Off: Everyday and caught my eye when I first got the book as a Christmas present last year. I was delighted that I finally got and opportunity to try it out.

Pastry is something that I'm not hugely confident with, but I am determined to overcome this. Apart from a few burnt edges which I trimmed off, this was actually pretty alright. It was really buttery crumbly, just the way I like.

The chocolate hazelnut ganache filling is so rich and a tiny sliver will give you your chocolate fix for the day. It tastes just like Ferrero Rocher. Yum!

 

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

(adapted from The Great British Bake Off: Everyday)

For the pastry:

200g plain flour 

Pinch of salt

80g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

4 medium egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, salt and icing sugar into a bowl and give it a quick whisk. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. Add the egg yolks and beat until just combined, then use your hands to mold the dough into a ball. Remove from the bowl and flatten into a disk before covering with clingfilm. Chill for 30 minutes. 

Lightly dust a work surface with flour, then roll out the pastry to a circle large enough to cover your tart tin. Press into the tin. Prick the base with a fork, then chill for a further 15 minutes.

Heat your oven to 180ºC. Bake the pastry case 'blind' by lining with a crumbled up piece of greaseproof paper and filling with baking beans. Place in the heated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry is firm. Remove the baking beans, turn down the temperature to 160ºC and bake for a further 7-9 minutes. Remove from the oven and set the tin on a wire rack to cool. 

For the filling:

250g chopped roasted hazelnuts

400ml double cream

150g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

1/4 tsp sea salt

Heat the cream in a medium pan until steaming hot. Remove from the heat and stir in 50g of the hazelnuts. Cover and leave to infuse for at least 45 minutes (up to 2 hours if possible), stirring from time to time.

Break up the chocolate and put into a heatproof bowl. Gently reheat the cream/mixture until steaming hot and then pour through a sieve onto the chocolate. Stir until melted and smooth. Discard the nuts in the sieve. Add the remaining nuts and salt to the mixture and beat well for about a minute until the mixture is thick. 

Scrape the mixture into the pastry case, cover with clingfilm and chill for 20 minutes to firm up. Leave at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.