Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

This chocolate hazelnut tart is rich and delicious.

With a chocolate pastry base, a layer of roasted hazelnuts and filled with a silky dark chocolate ganache, it's a chocoholics heaven.

It's perfect for making in advance and easily feeds ten at a gathering, so it's ideal for entertaining.

I've decorated this with a few chopped hazelnuts and a sprinkle of gold dust to make it extra special too.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you will love this recipe
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🔪 Instructions
• ⏲️ Cooking Time
• Baking blind
• 🥗 Serve with
• 🥙 Substitutions
• 📖 Variations
• 🍣 Storage
• 🍱 Prepare in Advance
• 📋 Recipe
• Desserts
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you will love this recipe

• Great for feeding a crowd with ten portions.
• A chocoholics dream!
• Easy to make.
• Make in advance.

My sister in law is a serious chocoholic, so when she visits I always have to come up with something different. For her, the dessert is always the main event.

She loved this chocolate hazelnut tart and managed three slices, which we served with extra thick cream. She said it would be even better with some caramel sauce drizzled over!

Anyway, this tart is relatively straightforward to make but it will take at least 2 hours to fully set, so it's best made the day before if you have guests.

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🥘 Ingredients

A note on some of the ingredients.

• Chocolate - I always use 70% cocoa chocolate for baking. Lidt is delicious but I also use one from Lidl.
• Cream - for the ganache it needs to be double or heavy cream, typically around 30% fat. You could also use whipping cream.
• Cocoa - use good quality cocoa powder. Drinking chocolate or other chocolate drink mix will not work in the same way.
• Butter - you will need cold cubed butter for the pastry or you will end up with a sticky mess. Purist bakers normally insist on unsalted butter, but I always use salted for pastry.
• Hazelnuts - you can often buy these already roasted, but if they are not, just place on a baking dish in a single layer with room in between and roast at 180 C / 350 F / 160 FAN / Gas 4 for about 10 minutes.
• Gold dust - I got this from Marks and Spencer but other supermarkets stock similar dust or edible spray gold.

The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post.

🍽 Equipment

• food processor - or mixing bowl and fork
• 25cm (10 inch) loose-bottomed tart tin 
• baking parchment - or foil
• baking beans
• mixing bowl
• small saucepan
• rolling pin
• cling film/plastic wrap

🔪 Instructions

Put the flour, icing sugar and cocoa in a food processer along with the cubed butter.

Pulse several times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Mix the egg yolk with the cold water and add gradually while continuing to pulse. The mixture will quickly form clumps.

Try not to blitz more than necessary or the dough will become overworked and the pastry will be tough.

💭 Top Tip

• Put a large piece of plastic wrap on the worktop and tip the dough out onto it.
• Use the wrap to push the dough into one clump and then flatten it out.
• Next place a second piece of wrap over the pastry and then wrap up the dough.

This will make it easier to roll out and save you getting sticky hands and will mean less clearing up.

Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough on top of the plastic until it is big enough to line the tin.

Take off the top layer of plastic and flip the pastry over and onto the tin. Use the plastic to gently push the pastry into the edges.

Peel off the remaining plastic.

Fork the base of the pastry and trim the edges. Don't worry if you need to patch it.

Chill for 20 minutes.

⏲️ Cooking Time

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F / 180 FAN / Gas 6 and bake blind for 15 minutes.

Remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 10 minutes.

Baking blind

• When you have a very wet filling to bake in a large pastry case it helps to bake the pastry blind first before adding the filling. This makes sure that you get a crisp pastry base.
• Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F / 180 FAN / Gas 6. Place a baking tray in the oven while it heats up. Take a square of baking parchment 30cm/12inch square and fold into quarters, then fold again through the middle. Hold the fold to the middle of the tin and trim off the outside edge of the paper. You will be left with a circle that lines the  pastry to protect it from getting burnt. Scrunch the paper up into a ball to make it easier to shape the paper to cover the pastry.
• Add some ceramic baking beans to the paper. This will stop the pastry from rising up and the paper from moving. If you don't have ceramic beans then use any dried beans or rice and keep them separate for this purpose.
• Remove the baking tray from the oven and place the tin on it. This helps to get the heat straight to the base of the pastry. Bake for 15 minutes. Carefully peel back the paper. If the pastry is set then remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for 5 more minutes. (For this recipe, the pastry case needs to be fully cooked so cook for 10 minutes after removing the beans.
• You can use the same piece of parchment several times. I use this baking tin regularly, so keep the piece of parchment with the beans to speed things up. It also makes it easier to tip the beans back in the pot.

Leave the pastry to cool in the tin.

Roughly chop the hazelnuts into halves and quarters.

Scatter the nuts over the pastry base, reserving a handful of larger pieces for decoration.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a large bowl with the caster sugar.

Heat the cream to boiling point in a small saucepan.

Pour the cream over the chocolate and sugar and leave for about 3 minutes.

Stir until the mixture comes together and is smooth and one colour.

Leave to cool for about 20 minutes. The chocolate ganache will thicken as it cools

Pour the chocolate ganache over the nuts in the pastry base.

Chill for 2 hours.

Decorate with the remaining hazelnut pieces and gold dust.

Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

However the chocolate raspberry tart will taste better if you allow it to come to room temperature before eating.

🥗 Serve with

• whipped cream, extra thick double or clotted
• raspberries or strawberries
• ice cream
• crème fraîche
• caramel sauce drizzled over

🥙 Substitutions

• pastry - use a ready cooked sweet pastry case to save time

📖 Variations

• individual - omit the pastry and line small dishes or ramekins with nuts and pour over the ganache for individual desserts.
• nuts - use pecans, walnuts, brazilnuts or macadamia nuts if you prefer.

🍣 Storage

• Refrigerator - store for up to 4 days.

🍱 Prepare in Advance

• Make the day before.

More chocolate desserts and tarts

• Chocolate Bavarian Cream or bavarois
• Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream Parfait
• Chocolate Roulade
• Tarte au Citron
• Raspberry Frangipane Tart
• Raspberry Parfait
• Chocolate Marquise
• Chocolate Cremeux
• Chocolate Delice
• 2 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse
• Chocolate Raspberry Tart
• Chocolate Tiffin

📋 Recipe

🍲Food Safety

• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat.
• Wash hands after touching raw meat.
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
• Never leave cooking food unattended.
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds.
• Always have good ventilation when using gas.

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