Chocolate and Praline Tart
Posted on 10/08/2010

INGREDIENTS

200 g Vitarium gluten free plain flour
150 g hazelnuts
60 g icing sugar
175 g caster sugar
30 g dutch press cocoa
100 ml water
100 g cold butter
300 ml cream
2 eggs
400 gr milk chocolate (gluten free)
80 g cream
20 ml milk
100 g dark chocolate

STEP ONE

Prepare pastry: Process flour, icing mixture and cocoa in a food processor until combined. Add butter and eggs. Process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface (or silicon mat) and knead pastry until comes together. Note: if your pastry is not coming together because it is too dry add water, a table spoon at a time, and combine after each addition until it does. Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins to rest.

STEP TWO

Prepare praline: Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Spread hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 5 – 10 minutes, or until golden. To skin the hazelnuts, place half of the roasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rub the nuts between the tea towel until the skins come away. Repeat this with the remaining nuts. Put all the nuts on a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray. Place sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil, without stirring, swirling or brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 8 minutes or until golden. Set aside until the bubbles subside. Pour the caramel mixture over the nuts and leave to set. When the praline is set, put it in a food processor or crush it until finely ground. Set aside.

STEP THREE

Tart case: Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface so that it is about 3mm thick. Grease a 28cm diameter loose-bottomed tart tin and fit the pastry into the tin, pushing it into all of the fluted edges. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to prevent the case from shrinking during baking. Put a sheet of baking paper inside the tart case and fill with rice, dried beans or ceramic weights. Blind bake the case for 10 minutes at 180 C (or 160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the rice and paper or weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until crisp. While the tart case is baking, make the chocolate filling.

STEP FOUR

Preparing the chocolate and hazelnut praline filling: Scald the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat (do not let the cream come to the boil). Remove the cream from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Stir in 3/4 of the praline mixture (reserve remaining to serve/ decorate). Spoon the filling into the tart, smooth over and refrigerate until set (2-3 hours or overnight).

STEP FIVE

Chocolate ganache: Combine cream and milk in a small saucepan scald over a medium heat (do not let it boil). Add the dark chocolate, remove from heat, and stir until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it does not set. When the ganache has cooled, spread it over the tart, smoothing the top. Refrigerate the tart until the ganache is set (45 minutes – 1 hour).

STEP SIX

Decorating: Sprinkle the remaining praline around the outside edge of the tart to decorate.