Never Underestimate The Power of Chocolate

Recipe 
​Chocolate, chocolate, Chocolate!!!

Chocolate Ganache Tart

This recipe is ideal whenever you want to impress your friends with your baking skills, enjoy an intimate afternoon tea with a very special one, or simply make the kids eat their greens – Never underestimate the Power of Chocolate.
   Easy to prepare, this exquisite chocolate tart do not require much equipment and time (although, you will have to place the tart in the fridge for 2 hours to set).
   For the tart base, I make my own unsweetened French style shortcrust, but if you prefer or if you are more comfortable making a digestive biscuits style crust, it works the same; however, it may crumble when serving and you won’t get the ‘wow!’ effect.

Shortcrust:

0.250            kg            Plain Flour (sieved)
0.125            kg            Butter
1                   Each         Egg
1                  Pinch         Salt
1                   Tbsp         Icy-cold water

   Place flour in a bowl, cut the butter in small cubes (butter should be very cold (not frozen) and you should touch it only to cut and place in the bowl. It the butter melt, even slightly, you won’t be able to roll the dough as it will crumble in pieces).
   Add the Butter to the flour together with the egg and salt. Pour the icy cold water, and work with a wooden spoon. This method, however, is for the passionates of cooking. You could also use your mixer bowl with a flat K-beater or even your food processor (in that case, replace the cold water by an ice-cube). The trick is to stop the machine once the dough starts to agglomerate into a ball – any more and the butter would have melted, hence, the formation of the ball.
   Put a handful of flour in a bowl and place dough and add a little more flour over the top, cover with cling-film and place in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes.
   Take out of the fridge and roll the dough – the thinner the better, so you can really enjoy the chocolate filling.
Butter a round fluted tart mould with a loose base, then work a bit of flour so that the entire mould id covered, shake gently the excess off, and blind bake (line with parchment/greaseproof  paper and use pie weights, or whatever you have available (Dry beans, rice…) to keep the crust from rising.

Fan-Assisted oven: 180˚c
Bake 20 minutes

   Take pie weight or your mix of rice or beans you have use to blind bake and the parchment/greaseproof paper, and return to oven for a further 5 minutes.
   Let to cool.

Chocolate Ganache:

0.500            kg            Chocolate
0.400          Litre         Double Cream
Vanilla Extract

   Place Cream inside a pan and warm gently (do not boil), reduce heat and add the chocolate, broken into small pieces, and vanilla extract. Mix continuously with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.  Once, all the chocolate has melted – it should be thick and smooth – rest for 5 minutes then pour over the pie base and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

​  Ganache nearly ready…

​   Before serving, take chocolate tart out of the fridge and let it to warm up at room temperature for 15 minutes. You can sprinkle the top with pieces of pistachios nuts, almonds flakes or confit orange peel, and if you feel adventurous you can even add some to your filling before pouring in the tart case.

I did not mention what chocolate to use because some people like dark chocolate and some other like a less bitter chocolate taste. You can use any chocolate you like. I personally use 300g of chocolate with 32-34% cacao and 200g with 70%.

   You can also make individual tartlets, ideal for afternoon tea, or tiny ones to serve with coffee… It depends on how much you want to impress, and how comfortable you are with baking.

​   On the plated tart picture (main picture), I also made a pyramid shaped with chocolate mousse inside - a fantastic idea for chocolate lovers. Chocolate pyramid is made using melted chocolate (dark and white) with a little butter, then thinly spread out on a plastic sheet, and cut to shape once it has set. Use some of the chocolate leftover to glue the triangles together, and put in fridge to set. Make a chocolate mousse and add 1-2 tablespoon at the base of the pyramid. It will also keep the pyramid in place when moving the plate.