Little Tart

Phew! At long last I have a post about something I actually baked myself. These beautiful little tartlets came from my current favorite cookbook - The Golden Book of Chocolate. I am a very aesthetic person and I knew I would love this book as soon as I saw the cover. I had flicked through it a few times in different book shops and then one day I just said "feck it" and splurged out on it. I have had this book beside my bed for weeks now and I love nothing more than flicking through it's pages and imagining what all the different desserts would taste like.

Last weekend was my very favorite 2 year olds birthday party and I really wanted to make a little something for the party so I thought these cakes would be perfect ( don't mind about the Cointreau in the ingredients, there were only adults at the party, bar the birthday girl herself). So with all the good intentions I went out and bought all the ingredients the day before. I planned on getting up early and making the cakes before heading to the party at 10:00. Ah yes, the best laid plans .... It really wasn't my fault that I drank so many glasses (bottles) of red wine the night before. J has been practicing with a band for the last year and that night was their first public appearance. It's a groupies duty to be all rock and roll and drink copious amounts of alcohol. For the record I would just like to say that I did my groupie duty very well indeed. Too well some might say. There was not a hope in hell I was going to be making any cakes for any birthday party. We were pretty impressed with ourselves for even turning up for the party. We stayed for a couple of hours and then went home and went straight back to bed for the rest of the day.

Chocolate Orange Meringue Tartlets

Chocolate Pastry
200g flour
75g cocoa powder
200g butter, cut into pieces
100g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Filling
350g white chocolate
2 tlbsp glucose
150ml heavy (double) cream
3 tlbsp Cointreau
Finely grated zest of one orange
2 tlbsp butter

Meringue
2 large egg whites
150g caster sugar



Place the flour and cocoa in a small bowl. In an electric mixer fitted with the hook attachment, place the flour mixture, butter and sugar and mix on slow until the pastry resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Turn the pastry out onto a floured work surface and gently knead, bringing all the pastry together. Roll the pastry into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees. Grease two 12-cup mini muffin pans. Roll the pastry out to about 2mm thick on a floured work surface. Using a 5 cm round cutter, cut out 24 disks. Gently lift each disk and lay it over a muffin cup. Push the pastry into the cups, smoothing the base and pressing into the sides. Trim off and excess pastry. Line each cup with parchment paper. Fill with baking beans. Bake for 5-10 mins. Remove the baking beans and the parchments. Place the cases back in the over for 2-3 mins, to cook the base out. When the base is firm to touch, remove from the oven and cool completely.

Place the chocolate, glucose and cream in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Stir until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat and stir in the liqueur, orange zest and butter. Pour the mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge until cool enough to pour into the cases, 30 mins. Fill the chocolate cases to two-thirds, leaving room for the meringue.

Preheat over to 200 Degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Then gradually add in the sugar. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with the plain nozzle and pipe onto the chocolate orange filling, bring the bag up as you pipe to form "witches hats". Place the tartlets on the prepared baking sheets and bake until lightly browned, about 5 mins.