An easy recipe for an impressive mini dark chocolate orange ganache tart with a sugar cookie crust. Have you ever had a chocolate orange at Christmas time? The ones that you smash on the table to break into slices and it disappears so quickly if you share with your family? This easy yet impressive dark chocolate orange tart is that flavor in tart form.
This is a luscious, creamy dark chocolate ganache infused with bright orange flavor set in a buttery sugar cookie tart crust. The rich flavor goes a long way, so one mini tart can be shared by 4 people for a creamy bite of chocolate or by 2 who like to savor more chocolate.
I was inspired by the Christmas chocolate orange but wanted to make it in a tart pan to balance the rich sweetness of the chocolate with a buttery sugar cookie. I brought a full size version of this tart with me to celebrate Easter with a friend’s family and it was a hit!
This recipe is pretty easy, you make a sugar cookie crust and then pour in a chocolate ganache and let it set up in the fridge. The hardest part is waiting for the chilling time- both for the sugar cookie dough and for the chocolate to set. So plan ahead for a few small bursts of activity followed by a long time in the fridge and you can have this dark chocolate orange tart ready to serve by dinner time.
Equipment Needed
- Mini Tart Pan: This recipe is made in a mini tart pan- I got mine as a set of 4 from TJMaxx, also available here.
- Mixer: You need a mixer just for the sugar cookie crust of this recipe. I use a 5QT KitchenAid stand mixer for all of my recipes. This can also be made with a handheld mixer.
Key Ingredients
- High Quality Dark Chocolate: Since the chocolate orange ganache has very few ingredients you want to use high quality ingredients because the flavor will stand out. For dark chocolate, I like to use Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips or the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Chips.
- Orange Zest: This is what gives the tart it’s orange flavor. To zest an orange, use a small holed cheese grater or microplane grater and gently rub the orange skin across the grater. You want to get just the outside orange layer of the peel, not the white layer, so do about 3 passes in one spot before rotating the orange to get a different area of the peel. We’ll use a teaspoon of zest, this is less than one whole orange of zest so you’ll have some extra left over or you can stop once you have a teaspoon. You can still eat the orange you just zested, but do so soon after zesting as it thins the protective peel so the orange can go bad faster.
How to Make a Dark Chocolate Orange Tart
This recipe is pretty easy, it just requires chilling time, both for the cookie crust dough and then for the ganache to set- so plan ahead for these long chilling times.
This recipe starts with a sugar cookie crust, which is a smaller version of this recipe Easter Decorated Sugar Cookies. It’s baked in a mini tart pan- I got mine as a set of 4 from TJMaxx, also available here.
For the cookie crust, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 3 minutes, this is longer than you think, let it keep going to get nice and fluffy. Add orange juice and vanilla extract, mix well. Add flour and baking powder, mix well until it comes together into a ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
Once chilled, roll out the crust to about 1/2 inch thickness, place into the mini tart pan. Cut off any excess hanging over the edge of the pan. Poke a few holes in the bottom with a fork, so air doesn’t get stuck underneath and create bubbles in the crust.
Like a batch of sugar cookies, you bake the cookie crust for 10 minutes at 375°F until lightly golden brown, but instead of being a cut out cookie shape it’s pressed into the tart pan and becomes a tart crust.
Once your sugar cookie crust is baked, and fully cooled, you can move on to making the dark chocolate orange ganache filling. This is super easy and yet it tastes like it took a lot more work! It’s made in the microwave!
In a microwave safe bowl, measure out 40g of high quality dark chocolate. Pour in 60g (1/2 cup) heavy cream and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar.
Microwave for 30 seconds. Add the 10g of butter and the 1 teaspoon of orange zest into the hot chocolate.
Using a spoon or a whisk, stir the mixture until it’s smooth. Ganache always looks messed up or broken as the fats come together with the cream, so don’t worry just keep mixing, it will eventually come together into a luxurious thick chocolaty mixture.
Pour the ganache filling into the cooled sugar cookie crust, set into the fridge to cool, let set at least 4 hours, but overnight is better.
Enjoy!
Dark Chocolate Orange Tart
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Crust
- 55 g Unsalted Butter (room temperature, ¼ cup)
- 55 g Granulated Sugar (¼ cup)
- 1 ½ teaspoons Orange Juice
- 80 g All Purpose Flour (½ cup + ⅛ cup)
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
Dark Chocolate Orange Ganache Filling
- 45 g Dark Chocolate
- 60 g Heavy Cream (¼ cup)
- ¼ teaspoon Granulated Sugar
- 2 g Orange Zest (1 teaspoon)
- 10 g Unsalted Butter
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Crust
- For the cookie crust, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 3 minutes,
- Add orange juice and vanilla extract, mix well.
- Add flour and baking powder, mix well until it comes together into a ball of dough.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.
- Once chilled, roll out the crust to about 1/2 inch thickness, place into the mini tart pan. Cut off any excess hanging over the edge of the pan. Poke a few holes in the bottom with a fork.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 375°F until lightly golden brown
- Cool crust completely
Dark Chocolate Orange Ganache Filling
- In a microwave safe bowl, measure out dark chocolate. Pour in heavy cream and sugar.
- Microwave for 30 seconds. Add the 10g of butter and the 1 teaspoon of orange zest into the hot chocolate.
- Using a spoon or a whisk, stir the mixture until it's smooth.
- Pour the ganache filling into the cooled sugar cookie crust, set into the fridge to cool, let set at least 4 hours, but overnight is better.
- Enjoy!
