plum, chocolate and pistachio tart

plum, chocolate and pistachio tart

• 4 Mar 2013

I bake most weekends and this past weekend I planned to make cookies but somehow I ended up making this very elaborate plum, chocolate and pistachio tart. Go figure?



Plums are still available in the shops so I adapted this recipe for chocolate pear and hazelnut tart using plums instead of the pears and pistachios instead of hazelnuts.  



I made the pastry in the morning and finished baking the tart later in the afternoon. The pastry makes a generous amount so I'm still working out ways to use the leftovers.



After the tart comes out of the oven it's nice to glaze it with some apricot jam, just to pretty it up a little before serving.



The tart would be delicious served with a big dollop of cream.



Here's the recipe for you, adapted from The Popina Book of Baking by Isidora Popovic - makes 8-12 slices

Ingredients
1 Chocolate Shortcrust recipe

1 Sponge Dough recipe

3- 4 plums halved and stoned

20 g unsalted pistachios roughly chopped and lightly roasted in a dry frying pan

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 tablespoons apricot jam
Cream, to serve

A 35 x 10 cm loose bottom rectangular fluted tart tin, greased

Chocolate Shortcrust recipe

225g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

125g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

85g caster sugar

1 egg

Place the flour, cocoa, butter and sugar in a food processor and blitz until you get crumbs. Add the egg and mix again until the dough starts to gather around the blade. Take the dough out of the food processor and bring together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap or kitchen paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  

As this is a sticky dough, I rolled the dough out on lightly floured greaseproof paper until it was 3-4 mm thick. Line the tart tin with the chocolate shortcrust pastry and trim the excess dough neatly around the edges. Refrigerate the tart shell while you make the filling. I used about ⅔ of the dough for this tart. Any leftovers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer.

Sponge Dough recipe

30g unsalted butter, at room temperature

60g caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

60g plain flour

Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix with electric beaters to combine. Mix in the egg and baking powder, then gently fold in the flour by hand until evenly combined.

Chocolate and pistachio cream

75g dark chocolate, finely chopped

45g milk chocolate, finely chopped

125 ml cream

25 g shelled unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped and lightly roasted in a dry frying pan

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Cover the cut side of the plums with the 2 tablespoons caster sugar. Put to one side while you make the chocolate cream.

Put the chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl. Put the cream in a saucepan and gently bring to a boil over low heat, stirring frequently. Pour into the mixing bowl containing the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted then add the pistachios. Gently fold the sponge dough into the chocolate mixture and mix well.

Remove the tart shell from the fridge and pour in the chocolate and pistachio cream. Arrange the plums on the top of the tart filling. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. I started checking if the tart was cooked at the 30 minute mark. To check if it’s ready, insert a skewer into the centre of the tart – if it comes out clean you can take it out of the oven, if not, leave it in the oven for a few more minutes. Allow the tart to cool on a wire rack. 

Before serving, put the apricot jam in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted and runny. Brush the jam over the tart with a pastry brush. Sprinkle over the remaining chopped pistachios and leave for a few minutes before serving.

I guess I'll be baking those cookies next weekend. See you all again on Wednesday with a Shopshoot.

Bye for now,

Jillian