Nocciola tart

A truly irresistible nocciola tart, packed with hazelnuts and chocolate. It starts with a crisp, buttery hazelnut pastry, filled with a rich hazelnut spread, then finished with a silky chocolate ganache. Although it feels wonderfully autumnal, it’s so delicious that it’s a dessert you’ll want to bake all year round.

Ingredients for hazelnut shortcrust pastry:

• 150 g plain flour
• 90 g hazelnuts
• 115 g cold butter, diced
• 35 g icing sugar
• 30 ml milk
• 1 large egg yolk
• a pinch of salt

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan or in the oven at 180°C, stirring occasionally. Rub away as much of the brown skins as possible by wrapping the warm nuts in a clean tea towel or paper towel and rubbing them together. Leave to cool completely, then grind in a food processor until they resemble a fine flour. Be careful not to over-process, or the nuts will begin to release their oil.

Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the ground hazelnuts and butter, then rub together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively, prepare the pastry in a food processor. Add the egg yolk, milk, icing sugar and salt, then quickly bring the dough together. The dough will be quite soft. Shape it into a disc, wrap in cling film, and chill for at least 1 hour.

Grease a 24 cm tart tin with butter and lightly dust with flour. Roll out the chilled pastry to about 3 mm thick and line the tart tin. Chill again for 30 minutes. Lightly dust the pastry with flour, line it with baking paper, then fill with baking beans or dried beans/rice.

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Reduce the temperature to 190°C and bake the pastry case for 15 minutes. Remove the baking paper and baking beans, reduce the temperature to 180°C, and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until golden and fully baked. Leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for filling:

• 300 g hazelnut spread

Additionally:

• 150 g hazelnuts

Toast the hazelnuts as above, remove as much of the skins as possible, and leave them to cool completely. Reserve a small handful for decorating the finished tart.

Ingredients for chocolate ganache:

• 75 ml double cream
• 90 g milk chocolate, finely chopped
• 35 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), finely chopped

Heat the double cream until just below boiling. Remove from the heat, add both chocolates and leave to stand for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth and glossy. Allow the ganache to cool slightly, keeping it pourable.

Assembly:

Spread the hazelnut spread evenly over the cooled pastry case. Scatter most of the toasted hazelnuts over the filling. Pour over the chocolate ganache and spread it into an even layer. Leave the tart to set. Once the ganache has firmed up, sprinkle the reserved toasted hazelnuts over the top.

Enjoy!