Caramelised Hazelnuts & Pistachios Chocolate Ganache Tart Recipe

We absolutely adore Autumn. By far our favourite season. Why? Well, for many reasons. The colours are breathtaking, we love cold more than heat (weird, we know!), we do enjoy the regular cuppa book and blanket scenario, but most of all, autumn means the oven is back on. 

So what other or better way to celebrate this season than with a good old chocolate tart enriched by caramelised hazelnuts and pistachios? 

Ingredients for the pastry (20cm baking tin)

    160g Plain Flour
    30g Cocoa
    80g Caster Sugar
    80g Cold Unsalted Butter - Diced
    1 Egg
    Pinch of Salt  

For the Chocolate Ganache

   200g Dark Chocolate
   250ml Double Cream

Caramelised Hazelnuts & Pistachios

120g Toasted Hazelnuts
120g Pistachios
115g Sugar
75ml Water

Method 

Chocolate Pastry
Place the flour, cocoa and sugar in a volcano shape, egg in the middle. With a fork, start incorporating the egg with the dry ingredients. When it resemble a crumble consistency, add the cold butter and quickly work it through the dough. Gently knead until smooth. Cling wrap it and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest. We usually wrap it in a disc shape, so that it is easier to roll and place in the tin. 

Roll out the pastry to about 3mm thick. Line the base and sides of a tart tin (round or rectangular) with the pastry, and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest. This will avoid the pastry from shrinking.

Pin the base of the tart with a fork, this way the pastry will be able to "breathe". Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking weights, beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes at 180°C. Remove paper and weights and bake for a further 5-10 minutes at 180ºC.

Remove from the oven and let cool down. 

For the Ganache
Cut the chocolate in small pieces. Place the cream in a pot and bring to the boil. As soon as you see bubbles coming up, remove from the heat and pour on the chocolate. Make sure you cover the chocolate with the cream, let rest for 30 seconds, then gently mix the two. When lumps are no longer visible, pour into the tart shell. Cover and let rest. 

For the Caramelised Hazelnuts & Pistachios

Place the sugar at the centre of a pot, add the water. Do not touch it or mix it, this would crystallise the sugar during the process. Bring to the boil at medium heat, but make sure to keep an eye on it. Caramel is a tricky process and what it happens, it happens quickly and it's easy to burn it. Trust us, we did it 3 times before we got it right!

One way of seeing when it's ready is by looking at the colour. As soon as the edges turn brown, then you pretty much there. If you have a thermometer, 160°C is the number you're looking for. The water at this temperature has evaporated, and the sugar will turn into caramel between 160-170°C. 

What we recommend is: when it gets to 160°, remove from the heat. The pot will still carry some heat, same for the sugar and it will caramelised quickly. 

Tip the toasted hazelnuts and pistachios into the caramel mixture, stir until the nuts are coated then out on the lined baking tray. Use a wooden spoon to separate the nuts as much as possible. The caramel will harden as it cools, so when the nuts are cool enough to handle, pull the nuts apart as much as possible then leave to cool completely. Careful, the sugar is a sharp little beast!

Place on the cake, serve with coffee, a chocolate beer or a glass of vin santo. Enjoy, we definitely did!

Original recipe from Chew Town