Lia Townsend's Chocolate Tart with Roasted Hazelnuts
This dessert is equal parts decadent, delicious, and divine.
Welcome to Put on a Spread, a recipe series that takes you inside the kitchens – and dining rooms – of some of our favourite home cooks. For this instalment, grazing table enthusiast and founder of Stories to Gather, Lia Townsend, shares her recipe for a chocolate tart with roasted hazelnuts.
Cacao is known as the 'Food of the Gods' for good reason and Lia Townsend's divine chocolate tart with roasted hazelnuts is certainly worthy of the heavens.
This easy-to-make dessert is an ode to our newest linen colorways, Cacao and Hazelnut. It features a rich ganache consisting of dark chocolate, cream, and eggs, poured into a crisp, chocolate pastry shell. It's topped with roasted hazelnuts for a toasty flavor that perfectly complements the cacao.
The result is a decadent tart that's perfect for serving up as an after-dinner treat or a sneaky morning tea bite.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 150g plain flour
- 80g icing sugar
- 30g cocoa powder
- 100g unsalted chilled butter, cut into cubes
- 2 egg yolks
- Oil to grease the tin (spray oil, vegetable oil, or melted butter will all work)
For the filling
- 300g dark chocolate, chopped (choose a chocolate you love to eat as you will really taste the flavour of it in the tart)
- 250mL single pouring cream
- 60g roasted hazelnuts
- Black salt flakes for finishing (can substitute for white salt flakes)
Method
For the tart case
Place the flour, icing sugar, and cocoa powder into a food processor, and pulse to combine.
Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Pour the egg yolks into the food processor, pulsing just until the dough begins to hold together. If you need a little more liquid add a few drops of the chilled water and keep adding until the dough just comes together.
Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and pat together to shape the dough into a flattened disc shape.
Wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan forced).
Roll out the dough between two sheets of non-stick baking paper until you have a circle that is around 30cm.
Line a greased 24cm loose bottom quiche/tart tin with the pastry.
Press the dough into the sides, trim the edges and prick the base with a fork.
Refrigerate the prepared pastry tin for 1 hour. (This reduces the amount the dough will shrink while baking).
Line the pastry tin with non-stick baking paper, fill with baking weights (you can also use uncooked rice or lentils as weights), and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove the paper and weights and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is cooked.
Allow the tart to cool in the tin.
For the filling
- Melt the chocolate and single pouring cream together. This can be done using the double boiler method (suspended over a pan of simmering water), in the microwave, or on the stovetop if you have induction. Whichever option you choose, go slowly, have uniform-sized pieces, and stir with a rubber spatula.
- Allow to cool for around 10 minutes or until it thickens slightly.
Assembling the tart
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the tart case.
- Scatter with the roasted hazelnuts and finish with a sprinkle of the salt flakes.
- Referiagte for around 2 hours or until set.
- Remove the base out of the tart case to serve.
For more from Lia, follow her at @stories_to_gather
Photography by Benito Martin
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