Blackberry Tart with Chocolate Ganache, Lemon Curd and Pistachios

After coming back from Cyprus from the bottom of my heart I was hoping for spring to come so I can wear dresses already. Today I'm looking out the window and I know that we still need to wait a couple of weeks. I was thinking about a recipe that would taste like spring. I took the lemon curd out of the freezer, made chocolate ganache and lay blackberries on the top. I have to admit, my tart tasted really good and I like the fusion of tastes and colours between dark blackberries, sour lemon cream and chocolate ganache. To add some colour I sprinkled the top with crushed pistachios.  

 Blackberry Tart with Chocolate Ganache, Lemon curd and Pistachios

Shortcrust Pastry 

125 g plain flour

pinch of salt

55 g butter 

35ml cold water

Lemon Curd 

It's the same recipe I used for my Mini Lemon Tarts, just reduced quantity of ingredients, we don't need that much. If you will have some left, feel free to freeze it it, for up to 1 month.

2 eggs
120 g granulated sugar
80 g lemon juice 
Zest from 2 lemons
150 g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Chocolate Ganache 

100 g  good quality dark chocolate, I used 70% , as I like bitter flavour of it

100 g double cream 

15 g unsalted butter

Toppings 

170 g fresh blackberries

2 tsp crushed pistachios 

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add cubes of butter. If you are using mixer, just simply combine ingredients until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs with no large pieces of butter. If using hands, use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour.

Stir in just enough of water to bind the dough together. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 10-15 minutes before using. Preheat the oven to 180°C, roll your pastry, line tart mold, and bake for around 15 minutes, till golden brown. Leave it to cool, and start preparing lemon curd and chocolate ganache. 

Mix zest and sugar together in the pot, add lemon juice and eggs. 

Bring it to boil, whisk constantly to avoid lumps. Boil it for around 2 minutes, and when is thicker, start adding butter, few pieces at the time. 

Use hand blender to combine butter with egg/sugar mixture, it will take couple of minutes. You should end up with creamy, airy and light yellow colour cream. Leave it on the side.

Chocolate ganache it's the simplest thing to prepare. Break the chocolate and place it into large bowl. Put the cream and butter into small saucepan, bring to a simmer. When butter melted and cream is hot, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir chocolate and cream together until you have a smooth, shiny mixture.

Transfer chocolate ganache to the prepared pastry, and place it in the fridge for around 20 minutes. When set take it out, and pour in lemon cream. Decorate your tart with blackberries and sprinkle with pistachios .