5-Ingredient Chocolate Orange Tart Recipe

You know the old joke about how the United States and the United Kingdom are two nations separated by a common language? That quite often proves truest in the culinary world, and when it comes to this recipe, watch out, because if you use the American version of a biscuit, you're going to make one terrible tart!

Use proper British biscuits (or shortbread cookies or graham crackers), and follow chef and recipe developer Jennine Bryant of The Marshside Pantry's recipe, and you're going to make a delightful dessert that's not that hard to prepare yet looks and tastes great. Bryant says: "McVities are the biggest brand of biscuits over here, [but] from my reading, graham crackers are the closest thing in the USA to the digestive biscuits I used in the recipe, so I would say that they are probably the best recommendation I can give for a biscuit brand!"

And yes, the recipe really does call for only five ingredients (not counting the sliced oranges you use for a decorative flourish, that is). And the best part? It comes together super quickly too. So gather together your chocolate, cream, butter, orange extract, and cookies, biscuits, or whatever you are set on calling them, and let's get to it!

All you need to make this tart is about eight and a half ounces of biscuits/cookies, ten tablespoons of unsalted butter, divided, 18 ounces of chocolate, one and a quarter of a cup of thickened cream, and one and a half teaspoons of orange extract. You can also use sliced oranges for a garnish.

For the chocolate, do what sounds best to you. You can use a baker's dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or whatever you'd like, really. And for the cookies/biscuits, keep it sweet and simple. When in doubt, you can order traditional British biscuits online. (Note that Bryant uses gluten-free biscuits, which work just fine here.)

Using a blender or large food processor, blend the biscuits until you have a fine crumb mixture. Next, melt six tablespoons of butter, and mix it in with the biscuit crumbs, blending again to fully combine the butter and crumbs. Now scoop the mixture out of the blender and then press the butter/biscuit mixture into the base and sides of a nine-inch tart tin with a removable base. "It is easiest to do this using the back of a spoon," Bryant says.

Now pop this prepared pan into the fridge, and leave it there for 15 minutes to harden.

Meanwhile, as the crumb crust cools, break up the chocolate into pieces (assuming you're not using little chunks of chocolate in the first place, in which case, keep cruising), and place them in a heatproof bowl.

Now pour the cream, four tablespoons of butter, and the orange extract into a pan and heat it on a stove at low heat, warming the liquid until the cream is hot but not boiling. Next, pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate, and using a fork, keep mixing until the chocolate has completely melted and combined with the cream.

Take the tart case out of the fridge and pour in the still-warm chocolate orange cream mixture, making sure the surface is even as you pour. There might be a few bubbles on the surface of the tart filling from all the mixing, in which case, gently tap the tart on the kitchen counter — that should knock the bubbles out. You can also pop them with a fork tine if need be.

Now leave the tart to cool for a few minutes before putting it into the fridge, where you should let it chill for at least two hours. Finally, if you'd like, decorate it with any leftover chocolate or biscuit crumbs, and serve the dessert with orange wedges. And if you don't eat all of it one go, no problem! "This tart actually stores really well, as long as you have space in the fridge," Bryant says. "As long as it is stored in the fridge, it should be good for five to seven days."