Chocolate and Orange Tart

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I'm not back at uni and swamped with work so have been running around like a headless chicken (actually, I wish. I have been sat at my desk buried in my notes like a bookworm). This is probably why it's taken me about a week to write this post. I keep writing a bit, going back to do some homework, coming back to this, and then wondering what on earth I was on about...

What am I wondering about? Chocolate, probably. So much in fact that I googled: 'how much chocolate does it take to kill a human?'

Google says: "Those massive bars of cadburys dairy milk are 200g - so approx 31 of those would have a 50% chance of killing you of theobromine poisoning if you are of average weight." 

31?!?!! That is some serious breakup you will have had to go through to eat that much chocolate, surely?

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I baked this just before I came to uni (because now that I am back I have no oven again), and it was from the Green and Black's cookbook! Therefore I only have 5 recipes left to make! It's taken me 4 years to get this far, but I've been making them at an exponentially declining (mathmos, is this right???) rate. It may well be 201243345 before I finish the cookbook.

(Well, I'll be dead by then, but you get my drift).

However, you can make this Seville orange and chocolate tart now! Seville oranges are in season in February (apparently) so uh, I'm guessing they'll have lots of offers on it in Sainsbury's, if that helps... 

:)

Also, who has been watching 'How To Cook Like Heston'?. I watched a few before I came to uni, and the episode with chocolate he put coins in the tart base when blind baking it to ensure it cooked from the top and bottom, like so:

So I decided to try it out for you to see if it worked. The idea is that the metal conducts heat so it cooks the pastry right at the source, it makes it crispier and probably cooks faster too.

I didn't really have a 'control group' (i.e. pastry base without the pennies in it) to compare but I think it was crispier. You are also supposed to pour the filling in to the tart whilst it is still in the oven but my filling is just poured in a left to cool so I didn't test that out. (Though it would have been useful for my chocolate crusted lemon tart - and yes, that link it there so you check it out, muahaha.)

Either way, you can be like 'I cook like Heston! I cook like HESTON BLUMENTHAL! So you just HAVE to eat it. Chop chop'.

But the funniest thing about this is that I didn't have enough coins in my purse so asked my mum for some. She reluctantly handed my her pennies, gave me a very stern look and pointed at the 1p and 2p coins I was now holding:

"Don't eat them!!"

Thanks for that, mum. I'm glad one of us has some common sense ;)

Moorish Chocolate and Orange Tart Adapted from the Green & Black’s cookbook Cuts into 12 small slices, or 6 big ones (fatty :p) Takes: a while Pastry 200g (6oz.) Plain Flour 40g (1 ½ oz.) Caster Sugar 90g (3 oz.) Butter, chilled. Grated Zest of 1 seville orange 2 Tablespoons Water Filling 200g (2 oz.) Dark Chocolate (75% cocoa solids is perfect) 250ml (9oz.) Cream 5 Large Egg Yolks 90g (3 oz.) Caster Sugar The Juice of the grated orange Cut the butter into dice and process with the flour and orange zest in a food processor (or rub in by hand) until it resembles breadcrumbs. Bind with the water and rest in a fridge for 30mts. Roll out the pastry to line an 20cm ( 8”) tart tin. Use a fork and stab the bottom of the pastry a few times (this will stop it from puffing up). Cover this with parchment and coins and bake blind at 190C (175C if fan oven),375F, Gas 5 for 20 minutes. Take off the paper and continue cooking for a further 10 mins until the pastry is golden. Leave to cool. Break up the chocolate and put it with the cream in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate melts. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar together until light and thick. Take the melted chocolate off the saucepan and stir in the egg mixture. Now put this bowl back on the pot and stir over the simmering water until it thickens. Now stir in the orange juice and stir for another 4 minutes over the heat. Pour this into the cooled pastry shell and chill for 3 hours to set. Served with whipped cream if you like! It is quite dark and intense.

p.s. Happy Chinese New Year! Sorry I'm almost a week late, but I hope you had a good new years for those of you that celebrated!