Chocolate Orange Tart (vegan, gluten free)
Rich cacao and zesty orange oil combine in this 9-ingredient chocolate orange tart. Vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free!
Servings: 8 people
Equipment
- High speed blender
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup oats (gluten free if needed)
- ¼ cup almonds
- 3 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 2 tablespoon cacao or cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅓ cup unmelted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 tbsp water
Filling
- 2 400ml cans full fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge overnight
- 1 100g bar vegan dark chocolate
- ¼ cup maple syrup (at room temperature) or date paste
- ¼ cup cacao or cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon edible orange oil
- Pinch of salt
To decorate
- Orange slices
- Shaved dark chocolate
- Fresh herbs
Instructions
To make crust
- Preheat your oven to 350F/175°C. Line bottom of an 8-inch pie or flan dish with parchment paper and grease sides with coconut oil.
- In a blender, blend oats on high power until they form a smooth flour (about 30 seconds). Keep blending until flour is as fine as possible. Pour into large mixing bowl.
- Add almonds to blender and blitz on high power until they too form a smooth flour (you won't be able to get it as fine as the oats, but aim for as smooth as possible). Pour into large mixing bowl.
- Add cacao, sea salt and arrowroot to bowl. Mix with a metal spoon to combine ingredients.
- Using your hands, quickly rub coconut oil into flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (we're doing this quickly so oil melts as little as possible).
- Add maple syrup and water to bowl and mix using a metal spoon to combine.
- Use your hands to quickly shape mixture into a ball of dough.
- Here's the fiddly bit! Place a sheet of parchment paper on a flat surface, and place dough on top. Place another sheet of parchment paper on top of dough.
- Using a rolling pin, roll dough out until it is about an inch wider than circumference of pie/flan dish and roughly 6mm thick.
- Remove top layer of parchment paper from pastry and place pie dish upside down on top of it. Quickly flip it over so pastry is on top of dish! (Be careful during this part, pastry can be crumbly. If it breaks, don't worry - it should be fixable in next step!)
- Carefully remove remaining layer of parchment paper, and very gently push pastry into pie dish, pressing it into corners of dish. If you get any cracks at this point, simply use a piece of excess pastry to plug them.
- Using a flat knife cut edge of pastry around rim of dish or just below, so you have a clean crust. (You will likely end up with a little spare pastry - feel free to use this as you wish! I like making cookies from it.)
- Bake in the oven 15-20 minutes, until crust is just starting to firm up.
- Remove and allow to 'rest' in pie dish for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. (Do not remove crust from dish before this! It will be soft and likely break.)
To make filling
- Open can of coconut milk. You will see that cream and water have separated. Scrape out hardened coconut cream and place in a heatproof bowl. (Use leftover coconut water as you wish).
- Break chocolate into small pieces and add to bowl with coconut.
- Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is completely melted and coconut is liquid (you are not aiming to cook ingredients, just to melt them).
- Add maple syrup, cacao powder, orange oil and salt and whisk mixture to thoroughly combine until there are no lumps. Remove bowl from heat.
- Pour filling evenly into cooled crust, and refrigerate (covered) for 1 hour or until filling is completely set.
To decorate (optional)
- To decorate, arrange orange slices, shaved dark chocolate and fresh herbs in any patten you like on the surface of the tart.
- Store in fridge.
Notes
Almonds - You can use another type of nut or seed for the crust if almonds don't work for you. I'd recommend sunflower seeds or peanuts. Be wary of using softer nuts like walnuts as this may change the texture of the pastry.
Arrowroot Powder - I don't recommend omitting this from the recipe, as it helps to bind the pastry. If you're really stuck, you could try using cornstarch instead but I haven't tested it in the recipe.
Coconut Oil - If you're not a fan of the taste, feel free to use vegan butter instead.
Maple Syrup - You can use any liquid sweetener here. Agave syrup or coconut nectar work would give similar results.
Coconut Milk - It's important to use full fat coconut milk for this recipe, as otherwise the milk won't separate into the hardened cream and water properly. Brands I like are Thai Kitchen or Earth's Choice.
Edible Orange Oil - Most supermarkets sell this now. I buy Simply Organic from my local Whole Foods.