About 10 years ago I briefly went out with a chap who owned a company that made and supplied soup to some very important places. He was what one might call a blessed man, everything he touched turned to gold. And he was wise. Annoyingly, him being wise wasn’t annoying.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind about him was his belief that everything that’s good in the world is simple. So a great soup should be a combination of simple ingredients and simple flavours. A rosette worthy cake should be a simple affair; carrot cake was his favourite I seem to recall. And a great relationship should be simple, not too much like hard work. Which is probably why he finished things with me, for we were not a natural, simple fit.
This chocolate ganache tart is a simple thing. All crunch and crumble and velvet smoothness in your mouth, probably best enjoyed with something very simple like a bowl of raspberries or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
One more thing I remembered. He never made me a bowl of soup. Not once. I feel cheated.
One year ago: Choc dipped ice-cream cones and Sweetie covered ice-cream wafers and Razzamatazz ribs and Thoroughly British banana and custard cupcakes
Two years ago: Banana and custard melts and Thomas fairy cakes
Chocolate ganache tart
Ingredients:
Pastry:
– 250g plain flour
– 50g icing sugar
– 125g butter
– 1 large egg
Ganache:
– 300mls double cream
– 50g salted butter, cubed
– 100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
– 100g milk chocolate, finely chopped
Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour and icing sugar (use hands/food processor or KitchenAid on speed 1/2 using flat beater) until you have a breadcrumb like consistency. Then bind together with the egg using either a blunt knife or the flat beater at speed 1 on the KitchenAid. Once you have clumps of pastry pulling together, use your hands to gather into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry to a thickness of about 3mm and line a 23cm loose bottomed tart tin with it. (I move the pastry by laying both hands under the pastry with palms upwards and fingers spread wide.) Make sure the pastry is pushed into the corners, then run the rolling pin over the top of the tart tin to trim the pastry edges. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans/uncooked rice or pulses. Bake in a preheated 180C/Gas 4 oven for 15 minutes then remove the beans and paper and bake until lightly golden brown and baked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool but leave in the tin.
Make the ganache by boiling the cream in a small saucepan until just boiling. Do not allow to boil for long or the ganache will be grainy. Then add the butter and chocolate and stir until completely smooth. Pour into your blind baked pastry case and leave to set, either on the side at room temperature overnight for a soft set. Or in the fridge which is a lot faster and achieves a hard set. If you use the fridge method the tart will lose a little of its shine though taste not compromised.
NB: Please excuse the rubbish pic. It was taken at QVC where the lighting is great for TV but not so great for photographing food.
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