Chocolate and orange tart

My goodness this is good!

My sister-in-law is a keen cook and has a huge folder full of ripped out pages from recipe magazines with some of her favourite recipes.  I was spending a lovely half hour looking through this file when I came across a recipe for Chocolate and Orange Mascarpone Tart which just looked as if it needed to be made. I borrowed the cutting, and if Janice is reading this, it will be coming back to you soon, I promise.  I meant to make the tart over a month ago, but didn’t quite manage to find the time before we went away.  The tub of mascarpone that I had bought though had a surprisingly long shelf life so when we returned from our hols I was very pleased to see that if I was quick I could still try my hand at this little gem of a tart.

Now, I am afraid that there is no evidence of which magazine this cutting was originally taken from, but as I seem unable to take a recipe at its word I have made my own adaptations to it anyway.

It’s really delicious and really rich, so a 20cm tart will easily serve 12 people if not a few more and it still tastes good a few days after being made – I know because I have been doing plenty of experimenting!

For the base:
200g dark chocolate digestives
50g unsalted butter, melted
zest of 1 orange

For the filling:
250g mascarpone, at room temperature
100g cream cheese, at room temperature
3 eggs, at room temperature
grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
150g light brown soft sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp fine sea salt
50g good quality dark chocolate
50g good quality orange flavoured dark chocolate ( I used Lindt Excellence Orange Intense Chocolate, which has delicious orange crispy bits)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°c (gas mark 6, 400°f).

Whizz the biscuits in a food processor, or place in a food bag and bash with a rolling-pin until they make fine crumbs.  Add the biscuit crumbs to the melted butter with the orange zest and mix to combine well.

Press the biscuit crumb mixture into a 20cm springform cake tin, making sure it is well pressed down. Place in the fridge to chill  whilst you make the filling.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Place all the ingredients for the filling, except for the chocolate, into a food processor and whizz until smooth. Add the chocolate and whizz again until combined.  Pour this filling over the biscuit base. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until just set and risen slightly at the edges.  Slide a knife around the edge of the tart to loosen it and then leave in the tin to cool.  Chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight before serving. Serve with plenty of cream.

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16 thoughts on “Chocolate and orange tart”

  1. You are my hero…just throwing together tarts after a rather long holiday. I’d be happy if I had a batch of frozen brownies hanging out in the freezer. I should get going on that. We’re going away in August to Quebec. We’ll need chocolate when we get back… 🙂

    1. Oh Tracy, how I wish I deserved to be your hero. The tart was made, of course, but other jobs on the must-do list, fell further down the must-do list. It’s all a matter of priorities, and chocolate is always a priority! Quebec, how lovely, but this means we will be without you for a while – not too long I hope. Get those brownies made and in the freezer.

    1. It was lovely and well worth making and I think it could have lots of variations instead of orange – mint and cherry are at the top of my list for trying. Perhaps you could beat me to it?

  2. I’m not surprised in the least that this recipe caught your eye. Chocolate and orange are such a great match and the tart looks wonderful.

    1. Oh Mangocheeks, fortunately you can just feel them piling on, I though have the evidence! Oh dear, this blog will be the end of me. I make these things and then I am compelled to eat them.

    1. Thank you Sophie. I just visited your blog, but for some reason I am unable to tell you how delicious that burger looks, the comment keeps telling me there is an error.

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