Passion fruit and orange curd tartlets with sumac and chocolate

Sometimes unlikely chocolate pairings work extremely well, and thus it is with sumac, a pretty purple spice grown in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. There’s only a little used here, but it really adds a tangy hint of fruitiness to the chocolate. You will need six 10cm loose-bottomed tartlet tins.

MAKES SIX TARTLETS INGREDIENTS For the curd

10 large passion fruit, yielding about 165g pulp

Finely grated zest of 1 large orange

100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled a little

100g caster sugar

2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

For the pastry

195g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

120g unsalted, very cold butter, chopped

30g sugar

1 tsp white wine vinegar ¼ tsp fine sea salt About 50ml cold water

For the chocolate

180g dark chocolate (60 per cent cocoa solids), chopped

1½ tsp sumac

METHOD

Start with the curd. Scoop the passion fruit pulp into a small pan and gently warm through. Don’t let it boil; a little heat just makes it easier to separate out the seeds. Push the pulp through a sieve set over a heatproof bowl (one that will sit over a pan) using the back of a spoon. Remember to scrape the pulp from the underside of the sieve until all you have left are seeds. Add the remaining curd ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine.

Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stir constantly – with a whisk if you like – until the mixture thickens to a custard consistency. This will take around 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap so that it touches the curd to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool completely, or chill overnight for the best results.

To make the pastry, place all the ingredients, except the water, in a food processor and pulse to a breadcrumb consistency. Add the water gradually, until the mixture comes together into a ball. Turn out on to a lightly floured work surface, knead briefly, then shape into a disc and chill for at least two hours. Get your six 10cm loose-bottomed tartlet tins ready.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to 3mm thick. Cut out 14cm circles, using a plate or bowl as a guide. Place a pastry circle centrally over one of the tartlet tins and gently press it in with your fingers. Use an offcut of pastry rolled into a ball and dipped in flour to gently push the pastry into the fluted sides of the tin, and into the edge where the sides meet the base. You should have an overhang of pastry all around, so gently push the excess back into the tin to reinforce the edge – this will allow for shrinkage in the oven. Repeat with the rest of the dough and tins, then chill for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/ Gas 3. When the pastry cases have chilled, line them with a double layer of foil and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and beans and bake for a further five to 10 minutes until pale gold. Leave to cool completely in their tins.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir in the sumac. Spoon about 25g of the chocolate into each cooled pastry case, spread over the base and leave to set. Stir the passion fruit curd to loosen and spoon over the set chocolate – you want to fill the tart cases to the top. Serve immediately.

Recipe from by Sue Quinn (Quadrille £25)