This tart looks great right? It looks like I’ve spend ages making it right? Well, I haven’t and that’s because I used store bought pastry. I often don’t make my own pastry and I am never ever going to be ashamed of that – you shouldn’t either. Because, when you are time poor and the only other option is buying a whole pre-made cake for guests, you can forgive store bought pastry.
This tart is filled with a three ingredient chocolate ganache and topped with caramelised pistachios and hazelnuts. All in all, with the store-bought pastry you will only need 8 ingredients to make this beauty.
This is absolutely not a sponsored post (nor have I ever received any of their products for free) but ever since I found out about the Careme brand of pre-made pastry, my life has been all the better. Careme is an Australian pastry company based in South Australia. They have a whole range of delicious premium pre-made pastry including the best puff you can buy, sour cream shortcrust pastry, vanilla bean pastry and dark chocolate pastry (and they also make gluten free options too). I always have a puff, a sourcream, a vanilla bean and a dark chocolate in my freezer at any given time. Sure, Careme pastry is a premium product so it is not cheap, but it is 100% worth every cent.
While I have tart tins of many different shapes and sizes at my disposal, I often love baking tarts in a round spring form cake tin which yields a tart with gorgeous smooth rounded sides. This is also a great option if you don’t have tart tins to hand. The dark chocolate pastry filled my spring form perfectly, and the left overs were re-rolled and cut into different sized chocolate leaves which were baked alongside the tart case to sit in amongst the caramelised nuts.
It’s a showstopper tart that is made in relatively quick time thanks to a no bake filling. Also, the crisp pastry with the velvety ganache filling and crunchy caramelised nuts is a texture lovers dream. My guests had no idea the pastry was store bought… and I sure wasn’t going to tell them!
Hazelnut Pistachio Chocolate Ganache Tart
Ingredients
- 300g dark chocolate shortcrust pastry, defrosted (I use Careme brand pastry)*
Chocolate Ganache Filling
- 1 cup thickened cream
- 200g dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons butter
Caramelised Nuts
- 125g toasted pistachio
- 125g toasted hazelnuts
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Directions
Roll the pastry out to fit your tin and cut off any excess. If using a spring form pan instead of a tart tin, you want the sides of the pastry to be about 2.5cm to allow for shrinkage when baking. Re-roll the remaining pastry and cut into different sized leaf shapes. Bake the pastry as per the packet instructions noting that the little leaf shapes will cook very quickly.
Set aside the tart case to cool completely. To make the ganache filling, chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a large glass or metal bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan over a medium-high heat until just before it boils then pour it over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the butter and stir until smooth and glossy. Pour into the tart case and refrigerate.
For the caramelised nuts, line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and then bring to the boil without stirring, turn the heat down to a simmer and let bubble until the sugar and water mixture becomes a caramel colour (this may take a little while, but be patient and on your guard, because when it starts to caramelise it happens quickly). Working very quickly remove pot from heat, tip the toasted hazelnuts and pistachios into the caramel mixture, stir until the nuts are coated then tip out onto the lined baking tray. Use a wooden spoon to separate the nuts as much as possible. Set aside to cool. The caramel will harden as it cools, so when the nuts are cool enough to handle, pull the nuts apart as much as possible then leave to cool completely.
Top the ganache tart with the caramelised nuts and the chocolate pastry leaves and serve.
My little girl is obsessed with pistachios and I can never have enough dark chocolate–must make this!!
That looks just divine!
It’s convenient buying premade pastry, isn’t it? And these days it’s pretty good — definitely a quality ingredient. Anyway, what a super looking tart! Really pretty. And tastes wonderful, I’ll bet. Thanks!
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love your recipies as a new visitor too bad I cannot buy the pastry here in toronto, but where did you get your lovely serving platter in black? your photos are spectacular, diana from toronto
My goodness, this looks amazing! I’ve never used ready-made pastry before, and didn’t know it was that readily available in Sydney! On my ‘recipes to try’ list. I might add some Nutella. Thanks, Amanda 🙂