Orange mascarpone and pistachio tarts

The inspiration for these little tarts come from a German food blog called What should I eat for breakfast today?  The original recipe was for an indulgent Christmas breakfast and the tarts have a seedy pastry base with pumpkin and sunflower seeds and coconut and potato flour - which sounds delicious but as I’ve never used coconut or potato flour before and as this blog is supposed to have cheap(ish) and easy to find ingredients I’ve used a dark chocolate pastry instead - because chocolate and oranges were just made for each other.  It’s still quite a Christmassy recipe but maybe more suitable for lunch or dinner or tea than breakfast.

I used my favourite Careme dark chocolate shortcrust pastry for the bases, which has no preservatives or additives and uses real butter.  If you can’t find a similar one you can make your own, or use any good quality shortcrust pastry made with real butter.  I think they’d also be nice with a chocolate biscuit cheesecake type base (see the cheesecake recipes).

You could leave out the saffron (as it’s rather expensive) but it gives the tarts a lovely orange colour and gives a little edge to the favour, so put it in if you can.

Orange mascarpone and pistachio tarts

Butter some small tart tins and cut out the pastry to fit.  Bake in a medium (180C) oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked.  Leave to cool completely.

For the filling :

250g mascarpone
1 orange - juice and zest
a pinch of saffron
1 tsp honey

pistachios for serving
orange zest for serving
candied oranges for serving (optional)

Mix the mascarpone with the orange zest and juice, the saffron and the honey.  Fill the tarts with a tablespoon of the mascarpone mix and decorate with the pistachios, orange zest and a small wedge of candied orange.  Serve immediately.