One Tart, Many Ways
Hello to my wonderful readers and eaters.
This month, I’m writing and sending you some crazy delicious things - all celebratory. Perhaps you want to celebrate the majesty of our bodies? The longer evenings? The genius of aqua faba? Or my Substack anniversary?! Yup, we’ve been cooking together for one year now and fraternising with beans and greens, igniting our pans with every shade of fabulous.
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Onwards to chocolate!
We’re going to cover two tarts today - mad simple, insanely delicious, wholefood treats that will store in the fridge all week long.
Whenever my boys want a trashy treat or sticky slab of cake, I'm secretly delighted. That's because one of my all-time favourite hobbies, as you know, is sneaking extra nutrition into dishes where usually there are none. And the conventional chocolate tart was braying for a make-over.
Apart from upgrading the chocolate to a 70% dark variety, and using simple oat milk in place of heavy cream, we’re recruiting oats and almonds to make a base.
Oats have astral amounts of fibre for our plumbing. Fibre helps to move waste through our system, like a traffic warden. And if we’re not eliminating waste and toxins from our pipes, we may very well end up wearing them on our face. (Yup. Yuck). Our skin is the body’s largest excretory organ. So let’s remember that, and keep our pipes on speaking terms with us! More fibre please!
We’ve combined oats with almonds to offer even more fibre and a goodie-bag of vitamin E. This is the vitamin hailed as our skin's BF. Teens will wildly applaud.
The ratio of oat to almond is key however – go overboard on oats and the base will feel like cardboard. So be sure to get your mitts on ground almonds to deliver a sexy shortbread edge to the recipe. And instead of boring white sugar, we’re using mashed raspberries to sweeten the deal. Angels would weep.
The second tart is a more chocolatey version, with a salted cocoa crumb. Yumdinger. It's the missionary position of tarts, so go ahead and add your own signature moves. We love a dusting of coconut sugar to ramp up the sweetness, or a smattering of flaky sea salt. You could also try tearing open a raspberry leaf tea bag and sprinkling on top for extra jazz hands. Raspberry leaf tea is edible, tender, sherbety, and very distinctive - one for the intrepid eaters. Green matcha powder can also look pretty across one side (you can cover half the tart with a sheet of paper, and sieve the matcha onto the other side). Or simple cacao nibs showered on top can only result in happiness and applause. Your tart, your choice.
Let me know how you get on! There are step by step photos below, to help beginners (welcome, welcome!)
Plus, next week I’m giving away organic CBD goodies made locally in Wicklow by Amy and Fergus of Ethos, so keep an eye on your inbox!
Love, light and raspberries,
Susan Jane
x
//Chocolate, Oat, and Raspberry Tart//
Makes 1 fabulous tart for 10
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
80g oats
100g ground almonds
Generous pinch of flaky sea salt
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons good coconut oil or butter, melted
100g excellent raspberry jam or 1 punnet of fresh raspberries to mash
200g dark chocolate, chopped
200ml oat milk
Step 1
Fire up your oven to 180C. Try to get your mitts on a 18cm or 20cm fluted loose-bottomed tin (photographed below). A regular loose-bottomed brownie tin also works in a pinch. Loose-bottomed tins are not expensive to purchase online, but it might be worth asking a neighbour if they have a fancy fluted one to borrow. Grease your tin with clean fingertips and olive oil. If your tin is fluted, extra attention to the frilly edge is important to prevent cracks and tantrums.
Step 2
To make the crust, blitz the oats into a fine flour using a coffee grinder or a blender. Let the ground oats party in a bowl with the ground almonds and sea salt.
Step 3
Then whisk the maple syrup and melted fat together until glossy. When it's well mixed, pour over the dry ingredients and coat everything really well. Let the mixture soak for at least 10 minutes before pressing into your greased tin. It’s not like pastry — no rolling is required.
Step 4
Bring the mixture all the way up the sides (pictured above) and press down firmly as you go. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork before baking 12-14 minutes.
Step 5
Remove from the oven once cooked, and leave to cool for at least one hour before anointing with mashed raspberries or raspberry jam. I like a thin layer over the crust, and enough to peep up the sides.
Step 6
To make the ganache filling, heat the oat milk until you can see steam rising from the surface — almost scalding, but not boiling. Pour the hot oat milk over your finely chopped dark chocolate and stir with a spatula (not with a whisk or a fork). The ganache will come together fairly quickly (video below - it takes 54 seconds here!)
As soon as it’s smooth, pour over your raspberry pastry shell. Let the tart relax at room temperature before refrigerating to set.
Tips:
Measure neurotically well - a splash more oat milk can turn the ganache into chocolate sauce instead. It’s best to aim for a little under if you’re nervous! In other words, under-measure rather than over-measure!
The milk you use directly affects the ganache’s ability to set properly. Oatly oat milk, Dublin Oat, Flahavan’s plain organic one, and Minor Figures are all perfect. The vitamin-enriched oat milks don’t work, nor does the M&S one or the ubiquitous Califia brand due to the list of extra additives I reckon. Plain, simple, oat milk is ace.
Lidl do really cheap but fantastic ground almonds, organic oats and organic berries.
Both Lidl and Aldi do excellent 70% dark chocolate for considerably less than other stores. Although, my favourite dark chocolate to use in wholefood prep is Vivani.
// Dark Chocolate Tart with a Salted Cocoa Crumb//
Makes 1 tart
60g oats
100g ground almonds
3 tablespoons cocoa/cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
250g dark chocolate, chopped
250ml oat milk
Step 1
To make the crust, blitz your oats into a fine flour using a coffee grinder or blender. Let the ground oats party in a bowl with the ground almonds, cocoa/cacao and salt.
Step 2
Whisk the melted coconut oil and maple syrup together with a fork until glossy. Then pour over your dry ingredients and coat everything really well. I like to wait for 10 minutes before pressing the crust into the fluted pan – I find it much easier to handle.
Step 3
In the meantime, you can grease your pan with clean fingertips and a little coconut oil. Your pan doesn’t need to be fluted, but if it is, extra attention to the frilly edge is important to prevent cracks and tantrums. Once your pan is well greased, start pressing the dough into the pan. It’s not like pastry – absolutely no rolling required (see photos in previous recipe above).
Step 4
Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 Celsius for 12-14 minutes or until the sides naturally start to pull away from the pan’s edge. Leave to cool for at least 1 hour. Refrigerate until required.
Step 5
To make the filling, heat the oat milk until you can see steam rise from the surface – almost scalding, but not boiling. Pour the hot milk over your finely chopped chocolate and stir with a spatula (not a whisk or fork. Video in method above). I do a figure eight with my spatula around the bowl. The ganache will come together in 60 seconds. As soon as it’s dark and smooth, pour into your cooled pastry shell. Let it relax at room temperature before setting completely and absolutely in the fridge.
Decorate whatever way you fancy, although edible flowers are always a winner.
