Chocolate and Orange Portuguese Custard Tarts

I absolutely adore Edd Kimber's first book, The Boy Who Bakes, not only because it contains so many fantastic recipes but because it's visually beautiful - it looks equally at home nestled on a shelf with fellow baking books as it does on a coffee table. While flicking through last week I came across this recipe for Chocolate and Orange Portuguese Custard Tarts and instantly knew I'd have to give them a go. They're not too difficult to make and taste amazing: they'd be the perfect addition to a traditional afternoon tea or served outside after dinner on a warm summer's evening.

The original recipe can be found in Edd's book here, but I've reposted it below with my little alterations.

Ingredients:

Butter, for greasing
100ml double cream
175ml whole milk
Zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting
3 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
360g puff pastry (I was naughty - again - and used shop bought pastry, but if you fancy making it yourself then BBC Good Food have a recipe for rough-puff pastry here)
30g dark chocolate (ideally 60-70% cocoa solids)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan oven / Gas Mark 6 and grease a 12-hole muffin tray.

Put the double cream, milk and orange zest into a pan set over a medium heat and bring just to the boil.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour, egg yolks and sugar together until pale and smooth.

Pour the hot cream over the egg mixture and whisk constantly until fully incorporated.

Pour the custard back into the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It's done once it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Transfer into a heatproof jug and press a piece of cling film onto the surface. Chill until needed later on.

Lightly flour the work surface and the rolling pin. Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle 2-3mm thick.

Roll it up from the short end into a tight coil and cut into 12 slices roughly 1cm thick.

Place the slices onto a floured surface and roll each one out thinly. Using a 10cm cookie cutter (I only had a 9cm one so anything between 8cm and 10cm will do) cut out rounds of pastry.

Press the pastry rounds into the prepared muffin tin, then fill each tart with custard.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the custard is set. The custard rose and bubbled enormously in mine, but it works out okay as it shrunk back to a manageable size while cooling. I'm just not too happy as they don't look particularly neat!

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before transferring to a wire rack. Slice / grate the dark chocolate and assemble over the tarts before serving.

So there you have it: Chocolate and Orange Portuguese Custard Tarts. The orange flavour in the custard was particularly strong and worked incredibly well with the bitter dark chocolate. They kept in an air-tight tin for a couple of days after baking, but the pastry became quite soft so if they aren't all eaten in one go then it's worth popping them in the oven for a few minutes to crisp the pastry up before serving. Apart from that they went down really well! Yet another Edd Kimber success!

Let me know in the comments below if you attempt to bake these and make sure you mention any particular recipes I simply have to try in the future - I'm open to suggestions!