Sometimes, even at weekends, time is too short to make your own pastry, so good quality ready-made pastry is perfectly fine for this chocolate and orange tartlets. The small tartlets are the perfect bite-sized treat.
Makes 24 small or 8 x 10cm tartlets
Ingredients:
– Melted butter, for greasing
– Plain flour, for dusting
– 375g ready-to-roll shortcrust pastry
– 250g dark chocolate
– 250ml double cream
– 2 tbsp orange liqueur
– Orange zest strips, to decorate
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. Brush 2 x 12-hole mini tartlet trays (or any other size that you may be using) with melted butter and dust with flour.
2. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the pastry into a 20cm circle. Using a scone cutter to match the size of the tins that you’re using, stamp out pastry discs and line the trays with them.
3. Line the pastry cases with parchment paper, fill with baking beans and bake blind for about 8 minutes, depending on the size. Remove the paper and baking beans and return to the oven for a further 2 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (ban marie), taking care not to let the water touch the bottom of the bowl.
5. Combine the melted chocolate with the double cream and orange liqueur. Pour into a jug, then carefully pour into the tartlet cases.
6. Allow to set at room temperature and decorate with the orange strips.
Bringing a more relaxed attitude to weekend cooking, Catherine’s recipes encourage us to forget about the midweek humdrum. Forget about express meals. Close the door, turn the music on and fire up the cooker – it’s the weekend!
The Weekend Chef is published by Gill Books, and is available to buy on www.gillbooks.ie.
CatherineFulvioChef CFulvio