Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bittersweet Chocolate Tart



Happy Valentine's Day!

I do hope everyone had a pleasant day. I spent part of my Valentine's day with my family rummaging around Sur la Table gathering up goodies, free from any tongue clucking from my husband over my desire to acquire yet another cake stand. Eight cake stands isn't too many, right? They're all different! Certainly eight similar cake stands would be absurd, but eight different ones, well that is completely reasonable.

Just nod your heads in agreement. Thanks.

So then we came home, I basked briefly in the glow of my new toys and started baking.

Naturally, I made something that didn't require a cake stand.

Since it is Valentine's day, I decided to make a chocolate tart. Rich and bitter with dark chocolate, drizzled with a little tart red raspberry. Appropriate, wouldn't you agree?




Not So Humble Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

Crust:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
1/2 cup almond meal or ground almonds
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
pinch kosher salt

In your food processor, blend the butter and dry ingredients together until it resembles a fine meal. Add the egg and pulse until the mixture comes together. Press into a 14 x 4.5 x 1 inch tart pan and place in the freezer for a minimum of two hours.

Preheat your oven to 350°F

Place a piece of parchment into the frozen tart and add plenty of pie weights (or dried beans). Bake for 8 minutes and remove the weights. Bake for another 3-5 minutes until the bottom of the tart is dry and has lightened in color.

Allow the tart to cool on a wire rack and begin work on the ganache filling.

Filling:
(Feel free to flavor the ganache. You can add just about anything: almond or peanut butters, fruit purees, spices, or liqueurs. Basically anything you can dream up. If you add a 1/4 cup of puree or liqueur (etc), reduce the cream by an equal amount and add it to the finished ganache.)

11 oz good quality dark chocolate (54% cacao) finely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Place the finely chopped chocolate into a heat safe bowl and set aside.

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat and pour it over the chocolate. Allow to stand for one minute and then mix until smooth and the chocolate is completely melted.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a second bowl.

(Now would be the time to add flavorings to the ganache, if using).

Pour the ganache into the tart and allow to chill for at least four hours.




Optional Raspberry Sauce:
6 oz fresh raspberries
simple syrup

Purée raspberries in the blender and then strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids. Thin the purée with simple syrup to achieve the desired sweetness.

Before serving, drizzle the sauce over the tart and slice into one inch bars.

27 comments:

  1. that looks very good, did you add chocolate into the base? the photo looks like it has some choc chips in it, my son got a cheesecake with choc chunks (not chips!) in the base for his valentines day from his girlfriend of course, i had a small slice and it was delicious!

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  2. That looks extremely om nomable! I wish I was home to try making it!

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  3. Wow. Just, wow.

    You seem to cook, on a daily basis, the way I cook once a year in competition.

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  4. Bittersweet Chocolate Tart sounds and LOOKS delish to me!!! I'm such a huge bitter and dark chocolate appreciator that I would definately be able to appreciate something like your tart too :)

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  5. This tart looks sublime - especially with the raspberry drizzle. Delicious!

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  6. Alright, so now I know what I'll be making next week...

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  7. *heart* this post! your recipe looks great & the photography is always so *delicious!*

    & speaking of cake stands...check out the most amazing ones @:

    http://www.clarafrench.com

    micaela, the creator of these beautiful stands
    is so very, very talented!!

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  8. Don't ya just LOVE Sur la Table? My husband does a lot of their photography, and I swear, I could spend a small fortune in that store ... or a large one!

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  9. kitchen toys are the best kind of toys. and really, they're not for you. they're for the family who eats off them. you're really being rather selfless in spending so much time acquiring them. haha.

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  10. Okay, the fact that you come up with some really awesome creations AND make me want to eat the monitor because the look SOOOO good is really starting to get to me.

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  11. You make some really awesome stuff and this recipe sounds like it would taste fantastic. But to my eyes, it looks like meatloaf drizzled with ketchup. Perhaps a different shape or different topping wouldn't lend that impression. Happy baking. Would love to see your collection of cake stands. I'm a sucker for their cuteness too.

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  12. This tart looks beyond amazing even though they there are almonds in the crust (I don't fancy nuts). I should definitely try this out. I love you drizzled the raspberry sauce on top to contrast the chocolate. YUM!

    I wish I could see all of your cake stands! I'm so jealous!

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  13. Beautiful photos. I wish I could just grab that first slice and take a swoonful bite. ;)

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  14. That looks amazing. I made a chocolate raspberry tart as well. It was my first time making ganache, and as I wrote in my post, I was eating with a spoon! So tasty!

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  15. There is nothing better than rummaging around in Sur la Table! This tart looks absolutely gorgeous. I really need to get a rectangular tart pan.

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  16. Thank you so much for the recipe. There is nothing I love more than the taste of bitter and sweet, I think it's how I live my life. Can't wait to try the recipe.

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  17. renata,

    No chocolate chunks. The darker areas are just the thicker parts of the crust that didn't dry out completely when baked. If you under-cook this crust it comes out a bit like a brownie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing...

    Pamster,

    You say that as if resembling the glorious and delicious ketchup slathered meat-mass that is the MEAT LOAF could ever be a bad thing. :)

    Memória,

    I'll snap a photo soon so everyone can point and laugh. They are getting so out of hand.

    Linda,

    I am in love with those cake stands. My husband is never, ever going to forgive you.

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  18. really, really nice pictures!

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  19. Ms. H -- I have a child allergic to nuts -- is the almond flour required for texture and body or more for flavor? I can usually tell by the quantity but not sure with this one...

    I love Sur La Table as well. It is in the mall here that I HATE going to because most of the stores are so high dollar and pretentious. So I take the m-in-law, let her go to those and I spend my time purposefully (for my family of course) at S.L.T.

    and anthropologie. A girl's gotta have some splurge shops.

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  20. Southlakesmom,

    The almond meal lends a little flavor and a crumbly texture to the tart.

    Feel free to use another tart pastry, shortbread or even a chocolate wafer crust, all work well with ganache tarts.

    As for those mall stores, you're absolutely right. I once stopped in one to buy a single microplane and ouch it made a dent my wallet.

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  21. This looks so delicious...love the raspberry puree! I am putting this in my "must try" file!

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  22. Another completely mouth-watering post. Spectacular.

    http://reneetbouchard.blogspot.com

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  23. Thank you so much (especially from my diabetic pancreas that can't cope with too much in the way of cardohydrate...!), looks delicious!

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  24. Very "late" comment depending on how you see it...
    I got some questions regard this recipe, 1. what do you do if you can't get "Hershey's Special Dark cocoa"? I live in sweden and frankly, I've never heard of it so most likely not avalible here. 2. Is it possible to skip the almond meal thingy?

    Thanks for an awesome looking recipe!

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  25. i am allergic to nuts, any suggestions on a good substitute for almond meal/almonds in the crust?

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  26. Just sub flour (wheat or rice will do fine) for the almond meal.

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