Chocolate and Pistachio Tart

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

Chocolate Pastry:

• 160g plain flour

• 115g unsalted butter

• 70g icing sugar

• 20g cocoa powder

• 1 large egg yolk

Pistachio Paste:

• 200g unsalted shelled pistachios

• 160g white chocolate (melted)

• 120ml whole milk

• 2 tbsp icing sugar

• pinch of salt

Chocolate Ganache:

• 110g dark chocolate

• 110g milk chocolate

• 150ml double cream

• 35g unsalted butter

• pinch of salt

To Decorate:

• 30g milk chocolate (melted)

• chopped pistachios

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Method:

Chocolate Pastry:

1. In a food processor, blitz the butter, flour, icing sugar, and cocoa until it looks like breadcrumbs.

2. Add the egg yolk and continue to blitz until it just comes together and forms a dough. Keep an eye on it and don't blitz any further than this or you will overwork the pastry!

3. Squeeze the dough together and form into a ball, then wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.

4. Once chilled, transfer to a lightly floured surface and roll the pastry to around 3mm thick. Line a greased 7 or 8 inch tart tin, and use your fingers to work it to the edge of the tin. Trim off the edges.

5. Prick the bottom of the pastry tin with a fork and leave in the fridge to rest for another 30 minutes.

6. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 190 C (fan).

7. Once the pastry has chilled, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans.

8. Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes, then remove the baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. As this pastry is chocolate it can be hard to check the colour change during the bake, so make sure you keep an eye on it!

9. Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Pistachio Cream:

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add in the pistachios and then turn the heat to low, leaving them for 2-3 minutes.

2. Drain and run the cold tap over them to cool, then rub them with a tea towel to loosen the husks.

3. Make sure you are only getting the green part of the pistachios (this does take a while to pick them all out by hand, but it’s worth it!)

4. Blend in a food processor for a good few minutes until it’s turned into a paste and the nuts have started to release their oils.

5. Add the white chocolate, icing sugar and milk, and blend until smooth.

 Chocolate Ganache:

1. Heat the cream either in a saucepan or in the microwave, until it's simmering, and pour over the milk and dark chocolate, stirring until it is fully smooth, then add in the salt and butter and stir until melted.

To Assemble:

1. Spread the pistachio cream evenly on the bottom of the pastry case.

2. Make sure the ganache is not too hot, but while it is still very pourable, spread it over the top of the pistachio cream, and use a palette knife or the back of a spoon (or just move the tin around) to spread it evenly to the edge of the tart.

3. Leave to cool and set so there is no movement in the ganache.

4. Melt the milk chocolate and drizzle it around the outer edge of the ganache, and top with the slithered pistachios.

5. Enjoy!

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