Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

This is a celebration cake! It features a chocolate cookie crust filled with layers of rich chocolate ganache and orange cream. I actually made it about a month ago for a raw potluck that got canceled at the last minute, so instead of attempting to devour the whole thing myself, I stuck it in the freezer. It worked a treat. With Jayson's birthday in mind, I pulled it out the day before our family celebration. Then we all gorged ourselves silly on this incredibly rich tart for his birthday dessert.

This amazing cake comes with a word of warning: do not eat late and night, and do not eat in large quantities. It is insanely delicious, but so rich and packs quite a punch of cacao power. So make sure to share it with people you love!

The idea for this cake is a combination of Matthew Kenney's Chocolate Hazelnut Tart from Everyday Raw, and Raw Goddess Heathy's Chocolate Orange Cake. I didn't really plan for it to be that way - basically I couldn't find hazelnut extract, and I felt that I needed a bright, clean flavor to cut through all that chocolatey-ness. So I tweaked the tart recipe a bit, stuck an orange cream layer in the middle, and voila! Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

*This recipe requires a few days of advance planning, as you need to make the cookie crumbs at least 3 days before the tart. Since the whole thing is pretty labor intensive, I recommend making it in advance for a special occasion and then refrigerating or freezing until ready to serve. If freezing, take it out of the freezer the day before you're going to serve it.

Crust
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Sub-recipe: Chocolate Cookie Crumbs

2 cups cacao powder
2 cups oat groats, ground to powder in a spice grinder
3/4 tsp himalayan salt
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup raw honey
1 1/2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients (cacao powder, oat powder and salt) in a large bowl. Add agave, honey, melted coconut oil and vanilla and mix well. You'll probably have to get your hands in there! Crumble into small pieces onto dehydrator screens and dehydrate for 3 days.

Now you have lovely cookie pieces to do with what you will! You'll want to pulse about 3 cups of the pieces in a food processor to get small crumbs to use for the above crust, but you can use extras in lots of fun ways - crumbled over raw ice cream, mixed into raw chocolate or white chocolate base recipes, in other raw cookies, or just munch on them! Store in a sealed jar.

Back to the Tart...

Chocolate Ganache Filling
1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1 cup cacao powder

Orange Cream Layer
3/4 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
3 Tbsp agave
1 Tbsp melted cacao butter
1/2 tsp melted coconut oil
tiny pinch himalayan salt

Garnish
Dark Chocolate glaze (melted coconut oil, cacao powder and agave)
Orange segments
A bit of orange zest

To assemble the crust, mix chocolate cookie crumbs with melted coconut oil in a bowl until the crumbs hold together. Press the mixture into the bottom of a tart pan and place in the freezer while you make the filling layers.

Make the chocolate ganache by combining all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor (often these creams require a high speed blender, but mine came out totally smooth in my trusty old battered food processor) and processing until completely smooth. Spread half of the mixture over the cookie crumb crust, and put the rest aside. Place the half-filled tart into the freezer to set while you make the orange cream.

Make the orange cream by combining all ingredients in high-speed blender or food processor as above. Spread the cream layer over the bottom chocolate ganache layer. Place in freezer to set. After about 1/2 hour, remove from freezer and top with the rest of the chocolate ganache. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, or freeze if not using with a day or two (remove from freezer one day prior to serving).

I made a quick dark chocolate glaze by mixing about 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil with 1 Tbsp cacao powder and a bit of agave, then drizzling over tart just before serving. Decorate with orange segments.