It’s Valentine’s Day this week, so I thought we’d push the boat out and make something truly luscious that you can share with your beloved. Or you could just keep it to yourself; honestly, we all need a chocolate treat from time to time. And this Chocolate Torte is certainly that.
Strictly speaking, I’m not convinced that a Torte is a cake. But it’s my blog, so I’ll set the rules and therefore it qualifies. This ‘cake’ takes a bit of time to prepare and bake, but don’t be put off; it’s worth every bit of the effort.
I think it would work just as well as a Chocolate Lime mixture; use the zest of two limes and replace the orange juice with lime juice. Obviously.
A note about pastry rolling. My Nan (paternal grandmother, in case you’re wondering) was a cook as a profession. I think she was ‘in service’ as a young woman and later she was Head Cook in a school – and, to be clear, this was in the days when they actually used to cook the food, not just heat it up. Nan taught me a lot of cooking and baking tricks. She used to say that my pastry was very good, which made my 10-year-old self so proud, you can’t imagine. However, she was not so impressed with my pastry rolling techniques. I remember her wrapping my knuckles (literally, this was the 1970s) when I began to roll the pastry forward and back. “Never, ever, ever roll the pastry in two directions” I was told, “Always roll away from yourself.” I have no earthly idea why. I never questioned her. But I have only ever rolled my pastry forwards since.
So. Aprons on. Here we go …
The Pastry
I wanted a dark, chocolate pastry. If you think this is too rich for your taste then simply omit the cocoa powder and make up the weight with flour.
chocolate orange tort ingredients
125g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
pinch salt
75g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
25g icing sugar
grated zest of one orange
2 large egg yolks
8″ flan tin
1. Put the flour, salt and butter into a mixer and beat until the consistency is like breadcrumbs.
2. Add the icing sugar and orange zest, mix in well.
3. Beat in the egg yolks on a low-speed until the mixture starts to form in to a ball.
4. Use your hands to put the pastry into a ball, wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge to chill for an hour.
5. After an hour roll out your pastry. I put mine on a work top that I had dusted with icing sugar and rolled to a few millimeters thick.
6. Prick the pastry with a fork and put into the fridge for half hour.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 170 (fan) (190 regular, gas mark 5). Line your pastry with greaseproof pastry and fill with ceramic baking beans if you have them, or dried kidney beans do just as well. Put into the oven for 15 minutes.
8. After 15 minutes remove the paper and beans, bake for a further 10 minutes until the pastry is dry and baked. Remove from the oven and put to one side. Lower the oven temperature to 150 fan (170 regular, gas mark 3) ready for your filled torte.
The Filling
2 medium eggs
175 g dark chocolate (use good stuff, the best you can afford. You want minimum 70% cocoa solids. I prefer Green & Blacks)
175ml double cream
75g light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp orange juice (if you like you can replace this with Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
1. Break the chocolate into cubes and melt in a bowl over simmering water. Leave for 10 minutes to cool slightly (it’s important that you let the chocolate cool, you don’t want to add it to your egg and cream mixture and ‘cook’ things!)
2. Put the cream, muscovado sugar and eggs in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. Pour in the chocolate and mix well. Pour this into your pastry case and pop in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, the mixture should be just ‘set’. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
The Decoration
Go wild! Or not. This cake is already very sweet and rich. You could simply dust with icing sugar or top with raspberries and icing sugar.
chocolate orange torte (I think I overdid the icing sugar!)
chocolate orange torte
You can eat this cold, although it’s also rather nice warm with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.
individual Valentine’s Chocolate Torte
Fifty Two Cakes 