Thursday 12 March 2015

Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Guys, this was absolutely gorgeous!! A "buttery" shortbread cookie crust lined with chocolate, filled with a punchy orange almond filling and drizzled with a beautiful dark chocolate ganache. Phew! This would make an ideal treat for Mother's Day coming up this Sunday here in Ireland and the UK. In fact my own mother-in-law loved this so much she booked one for an upcoming do she is hosting (and no one there will be vegan!


Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart


I was inspired by several recipes here, initially I have based this on BBC Good Food's Orange Chocolate Tart - I loved the idea of lining the pastry base with a brushing of melted chocolate and letting it set. A great idea to stop your filling making the base soggy AND adding some wonderful flavour to boot!

Their filling was filled with eggs and cream and all that so instead I based the filling on my own recipe, the Summer Berry Almond Cheesecake Tart - which in turn is actually based on the Almond Feta recipe!! See how versatile that thing is?? Thankfully, it turned out perfect, just the right amount of filling for the pan, great texture and spot on orange flavour. It's the easiest filling in the world to make as well, simply throw it all in a blender and blitz, pour it in the prepared case and bake. Simple.


Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart


The Good Food recipe base was a type of pastry and I debated for awhile what I was going to do but opted in the end to make a shortbread cookie base. I veganized the Joy of Baking's recipe for this and it turned out wonderfully! Light and a little flaky but holds together perfectly and a great buttery flavour which goes perfect with the filling and chocolate. Much better than using pastry. I also used her tip for freezing the base before baking which cuts out the awkward step of blind baking - brilliant.

Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Lastly, I wanted to drizzle the top of this tart with dark chocolate, something the recipe I based this on didn't do. I was going to just melt chocolate and drizzle it on but then you do end up with hard chocolate on top which shatters upon slicing which I wanted to avoid. So I went with a ganache style chocolate sauce instead. For this I also used a recipe on BBC Good Food from another Chocolate Orange Tart recipe they have. It's simply 70% dark chocolate, cream (I used soy) and golden syrup. This was amazing!! Great flavour and perfect consistency. It makes extra as well so it's nice to serve the tart with more of the sauce on the side if people would like more. It is rich however and really you don't need much of it.

Altogether this is a wonderful dessert, perfect for guests vegan and non-vegan alike (which I can confirm!). Hope you like it as much as we all did....♥


Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Yields one 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) Tart (or about 12 slices depending on how big a slice you like!)

Shortcrust Base:
1 cup (130 grams) flour
1/3 cup (35 grams) icing sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) vegan butter

For the Filling:
2¼ cups / 225g ground almonds (almond meal)
75g vegan butter, melted (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
1/8 tsp salt
½ tsp orange extract
Zest of 1 navel orange – ½ Tbsp
200ml strained freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup/150g golden caster sugar

100g dark chocolate, chopped (I used 51% cocoa solids here)

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache Drizzle:
85g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100ml soy cream
2 Tbsp golden syrup


First, you will need to freeze the vegan butter into little blobs. This will help make it firmer, more like real butter and help the texture. Measure out the butter then drop teaspoonfuls onto a sheet of baking or parchment paper on top of a chopping board or plate. Place this in the freezer for about an hour. They don't have to be completely frozen, just firmer and nice and chilled.

Tip the butter into a food processor with all the other ingredients and process until it looks crumbly and is just starting to come together.

Lightly spray a non-stick 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom. Tip the crumbly dough into the tart pan and using a piece of cling film around your hand press the dough into the pan and up the sides. This is fiddly and will take awhile, be patient! My pan is the larger 9" and there were times I thought this wasn't going to be enough dough but it is, the amount was perfect in the end. Just keep going and try and make it as even as possible.
Prick the base of the tart with a fork, this will stop it bubbling when you bake it. 



Cover the tart with cling film and freeze for 15 minutes. As Stephanie says in Joy of Baking this will help stop the crust from shrinking when you bake it and cuts out having to blind bake the crust (and it works!)

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F. Place the tart on a baking sheet and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until it is just lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.




Once the base is fully cool melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water and brush the chocolate liberally all over the base of the tart. You won't need all the chocolate.


Transfer to the fridge to let the chocolate set. Note: the recipe I have based this on then brushed on a second layer of chocolate but I found this hard to do. When you try and brush the second layer onto the cold first layer it just seized up making it difficult to spread. In the end I decided one layer was enough anyway, just make sure you do brush a good amount on the first time.

When the chocolate is set, preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and make the filling. As mentioned you simply place everything into a blender and process until smooth and creamy. As usual my Froothie Optimum 9400 high performance blender did an incredible job here, super creamy in no time! (Not like my last blender where I had to keep shaking it back and forth like a maniac and stopping every 2 seconds to scrape down - so frustrating!)

Take the chocolate lined tart from the fridge and pour the filling in, make sure you scoop out all you can and then level off the top.



Pop it in the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven but it should be firm to the touch and lightly golden brown with no wobble.



Leave this on a wire rack to fully cool then cover and place in the fridge.

To make the chocolate ganache drizzle, place the chopped chocolate, soy cream and golden syrup in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir constantly until the chocolate just melts and it is thick and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan and let it cool slightly. It's ok if it's still a little warm but you don't want it hot.

I found the mixture a little thick to drizzle with a spoon or fork so I placed some of the ganache into a ziplock bag, snipped off a little corner and piped the drizzle on back and forth. Now remove the side of the tart pan and place the tart on a cake stand....


Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart


....then slice and serve!

Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

It's nice to add a little bit of extra ganache onto the plate and you can leave the leftover ganache in a bowl on the table for guests to add more if they wish. The ganache keeps in the fridge but will thicken up. Just microwave it in 10 second spurts until it is the right consistency again.

Note: tart is best stored in the fridge.


Vegan Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliated links to Froothie UK, I receive a little commission for any blender purchased through my blog which in turn helps fund my website. Thanks!


Nutritional Information: based on 1/12th of the tart (excluding any extra ganache you may use!) ;-)

Calories: 368
Protein: 6.9g
Fat: 21g
Sat Fat: 4.2g
Fibre: 2.9g
Carbs: 33g
Sugar: 19g
Sodium: 73mg

You Might Also Like:


Summer Berry Almond
Cheesecake Tart
(4th of July version)
Vegan
Grasshopper Pie



13 comments:

  1. Hi Debbie - this looks absolutely divine and I just can't wait to try it out.
    Take care.

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  2. This looks amazing, I love orange and chocolate. If I can't find vegan butter (hard to find where I live) can I use regular butter?

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    1. Hi Lauren! I know it will be fine in the base as that's what the original recipe called for....as for the filling I assume it would be fine. Generally when I swap vegan butter for regular there is no problem so it should work fine the other way :-)

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    2. This looks amazing!

      Also- if you can't find vegan butter you can make your own. Its so easy I never buy it anymore.

      http://www.veganbaking.net/recipes/fats/vegan-butters/vegan-butter

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    3. Great idea! Thanks for the tip :-)

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  3. That really does look breathtaking. I think chocolate orange is one of my all time favourite sweet combos and I have to say this tart is driving me crazy with tart lust!

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  4. Thanks so much for the comments! ♥

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  5. This is a seriously picture-perfect tart! Wow! It really makes me drool and I'm sure this tart not only tastes great but also smells heavenly good! <3

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  6. Officially the best tart recipe I've seen so far! Amazing :)

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  7. Thanks Gemma and Fiver Feeds! :-)

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  8. Hi Debbie!!

    First of all compliments for your blog and all your recipes!! They are absolutely amazing and this well, it's probably one of the best tarts I ever have seen!!

    I made it yesterday night and tried this morning, being really happy with the result, but I still have some doubts about the cooking method and time, reason why I'd like to ask you some feedback about it. I followed the recipe as indicated and cooked for about 35 minutes at 180°C. This morning when I sliced it I found it quite soft and the consistency like it wasn’t proper cooked, even if looks exactly like yours. My question then is: should the cake have this kind of consistency? like “dirt” the knife?. I was wondering if this may be normal, due to the fact that there is no actual “wheat” flour in it. Another idea was that maybe it depended from the baking method. Once I put the cake in the oven indeed, at the beginning was in static mode, and after 10-15 mins, when I’ve noticed it wasn’t inflating, I thought probably bake it in fan assisted mode and I turned it on. The filling indeed started raising and getting darker on the top, and at the end was like your pictures. Despite I left it 5 mins more, I was wondering if with the fact it cooked for the first half in static mode, it might needed more time to cook.

    I would really like to know what you think about it, because since that I never tried before, I don’t know if the filling has to be like this or If I made some mistake.

    Sorry for the long message and thank you so much for your help!!!

    Despite my result, your is amazing and perfect, Compliments!!!

    Pier xxx

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    Replies
    1. Hi Pier! Thanks so much for the comment and question, glad you tried the tart :-) The consistency of the tart should be soft, basically like a dense, baked cheesecake in texture but still slice easily and hold together. If it was like that then it probably was as it should be but maybe it did need a little more time as you said due to the first 10 – 15 minutes not being in fan mode (I do use a fan oven). I also find ovens can vary quite a bit in performance so perhaps yours needed a slightly lower temperature a bit longer….I hope it was still enjoyed! -Deb

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