Put something on those tarts

Continuing on from my last post, here's the recipe for my Chocolate Ganache Tarts. ENJOY

Chocolate Ganache Tarts

Pastry

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup icing sugar

125g chilled butter, cubed

Pinch salt

1 egg yolk

Ice water

I am quite lazy when it comes to making pastry. My method involves pulling out my food processor, throwing in the first half of the ingredients. Blitzing. Then throwing in the rest. And as my two year old son says, "tah-dah" you have pastry.

So you can actually follow that, here's what to do to make a sweet shortcrust pastry. In a food processor, pour the flour, sugar, salt and cubed butter. Blitz until it resembles a fine breadcrumb. Add the egg yolk and blitz until combined. Finally add the iced water a table spoon at a time until the dough comes together. Remove from processor and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes.

Butter a 12 mould cupcake tin and preheat the over to 180 degrees celcius. 

When the dough has rested, roll out between two sheets of baking paper until about 1cm thick. Using a cutter just bigger than your mould, cut out the pastry and cover the tin. Make sure there is no air in the base, as this could cause it to bubble when baking.

For a normal sized cupcake tin, I blind bake using some foil and weights, however when I am using a mini cupcake tin, I leave the pastry to rest again in the fridge while in the moulds to reduce the chance of shrinkage of the pastry while baking.

If blind baking, bake the pastry for about 10 to 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and careful remove the foil. Return the pastry to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow the pastry shells to cool in the tin then remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Ganache

650g dark chocolate

200mL of full fat cream

In a bowl, finely chop the dark chocolate. Using a medium saucepan, heat the cream over a high heat. Heat the cream quickly to avoid any evaporation. When the cream starts to boil, quickly remove and pour over the chocolate. Using a wooden spoon, stir the cream and chocolate until well combined.  Be careful while stirring as you don't want to aerate the mixture and cause bubbles in your ganache. When completely combined, the ganache should be thick and glossy. Immediately pour into your pastry cases, filling to the brim. Leave to set at room temperature for about 1 to 8 hours. Eat within 24 hours for most delicious results. 

(The tarts can be refrigerated, however condensation could form on the top of the tart changing the appearance of the tarts).