Chocolate Fruit and Nut Tart

Jamie Oliver's recipe for Chocolate Fruit and Nut Tart had been tempting me for a little while.  I'd stocked up on Green & Black's 85% before Christmas, and I had 2 blocks best before... yesterday.  So this recipe, calling for 2 blocks of this chocolate, couldn't have been better. 

On the left you can see the illustrations from Jamie's book (Ministry of Food, if you're interested).  Note the regular shape and actual shell styling of the pastry.  Below, you can see my finished product.  Hmmm.  The overview was just too blob-like so I've spared you that photo. 

I think part of the problem was that the Brits do shortcrust pastry differently from Aussies.  He gave instructions for rolling out to just under a centimetre thick, but mine was already rolled to about 4 millimetres.  So pinching the edges to form a sort of lip was not brilliantly successful.  Then, when baking the pastry, if I'd used pastry weights it might have stayed as a shell instead of ending up looking like a rug with stuff swept under it. 

The finished product tasted rather like melted Green & Black's 85% on top of pastry with stuff added to it, funnily enough.  I don't know if it was the pastry I used, but I don't think it was a great addition.  If this gets a second run, I might try making my own and seeing if that solves the above problems.

Instead of using the suggested raisins and hazelnuts, I used some (more) leftover dried apricots and roasted almonds.  One of the things I enjoy about Jamie's cooking is the substition - this, or this, or you know whatever you have to hand...  (Normally I appreciate the quantities as well - handful of this, a bit of this, just chuck in a few of these - but I have quite small hands so often have to guess when it comes to things like a thumb-size piece of ginger, for example).

If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I'll add it.