I have a bit of a backlog. I seem to open half my posts with that. I need to get my act together. I’ve been so busy (again, and I was expecting such a quiet July…) and a lot of that is blog related. I took advantage of working from home during the tube strike last week though to do some baking (gaining a couple of hours back in a day is pretty hand when you don’t have to travel). Having said that, it did take me 2.5 hours to get home from a Selfridges event I attended on the Wednesday night (more on that to come soon). The great thing about a Chocolate Tart is that while it needs plenty of chill time, the actual hands on time is fairly minimal.
I wanted to carry on my pastry journey. You can see the first few other bits here, here and here. This time around was a sweet shortcrust pastry shell and a chance for me to take what I learnt when I visited Bake With Maria a few months back.
I will say this now, while it’s a relatively simple recipe, it’s not a cheap one. You cannot scrimp on the quality of the chocolate you use here or you will simply have a fairly inferior tart. I just realised what I wrote as the second half of that sentence, oops. The white chocolate topping is completely optional (and I made far too much…) but it adds a bit of sweetness to an otherwise dark dessert. I’d also recommend serving this with some ice cream, perhaps vanilla or pistachio.
- Ingredients:
- **For the pastry**
- 250g Plain flour, plus extra for dusting and rolling
- Pinch Salt
- 125g ice cold butter (as cold as you can)
- 3 free-range egg yolks (the whites are not needed)
- 125g Caster Sugar
- **For the filling**
- 400ml Double Cream
- Few drops Vanilla Extract
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 400g Dark Chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids, cut into pieces
- 50g Butter, cubed
- **For the White Chocolate Drizzle**
- 100ml Single Cream
- Few drops Vanilla Extract
- 100g White Chocolate, cut into pieces
- Cacoa Nibs (optional, to garnish)
- To serve: Raspberries and ice cream, both optional, this tart is great on its own.
- **For the Pastry*
- Place the flour, salt and butter into a large bowl and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs (this can be done in a food processor by pulsing, if you have one).
- Add the egg yolks and the sugar and (pulse if using processor) use a spatula to mix until it comes together and forms a dough. You may need a splash of ice cold water here if it's too dry.
- Place the ball of dough in the fridge, wrapped in cling film, for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C(180°C fan assisted) whilst the dough chills.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out until it'll fit into a 25cm fluted pie tin.
- Cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans (I use rice).
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and rice and bake for a further 5 minutes until it has lightly browned.
- **For the filling**
- Bring the cream, sugar and vanilla to the boil slowly over a medium to low heat. Stirring so it doesn't catch.
- Place the chocolate and the butter into a large bowl and pour the boiling cream mixture over them.
- Mix well until the chocolate and butter have completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Pour into the pastry case and smooth out the top.
- Place in the fridge for two hours until set.
- Towards the end of the chilling, make the white chocolate drizzle. Do this in a similar manner to the chocolate filling but minus the sugar.
- Use a spoon to drizzle this over the top. You'll likely have some left over, but hey... you've got a spoon, right?
- Place back in the fridge for 20 minutes until the top layer has set.
- Garnish and serve with ice cream and fresh fruit.
Good to see you got some blogging time in finally! This looks amazing – when you going to make me some?! Great photos and tips as usually! xx
Sophie Elizabeth
http://www.popcornandglitter.co.uk
Yup at last! Just another 3-4 posts to go haha.
And when you’re free at some point, this wouldn’t post! And thanks x
Mmmm looks beautiful, I do love a good chocolate tart!
Thanks Kel!
Absolutely loving the look of this chocolate tart. It’s amazing how much free time there is when working from home instead of doing the daily commute, baking is an excellent way to fill it 🙂
Thanks very much! Yeah it’s so good gaining that couple of hours back. You can do so much with it.
Stomach actually just grumbled as I scrolled through this post!
Hah! Good to hear. Eat!
Amazing superior tart hehehe!
haha as soon as I saw this notification (and it was just a preview of the words) I had an inkling it was you!