Chocolate tart

Oh! A food related post, it has been a while! (In “Foodetcaetera”, there is also “etcaetera”. Hum!)

A few months ago, I was invited to a diner and I offered to come with the dessert. I don’t know if it is just me, but sometimes I deal with short amount of time moments in my life when I just crave for dessert food that are creamy and rich (not to say “fat”.) (The past 10 years, but that’s not the problem here!)

While searching for an idea, I found a nice chocolate tart recipe on Chloé délice’s blog (in French). I did a complete copy small rework of her recipe, and also tried to redo the visual.

So, here is my slightly modified recipe. (I would like to recommend to serve that little perfection with some whipped cream or even an ice-cream, but I don’t want to be the reason of your failed squat sessions.) (Sessions that are going to be partially ruined by the tart itself!)

Be careful, spoiler, that recipe is not healthy, nor vegan, and either less gluten free. Just so you know.

For the crust:

• 1 ^2/3 Flour + ½ cup for handling
• ¾ cup Icing sugar
• A pinch of alt
• 7 tablespoons unsalted Butter
• 1 egg

You put every dry ingredient in a bowl and break the egg in the middle of it. Mix by hand, add the butter in small chunks one piece after another. In the end, make a bowl of dough using the rest of the flour to avoid sticking. Wrap in plastic and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

You need to blind bake* the dough, for at least 10 minutes (depending on your oven) at 350° F until light brown and crispy.
(*Blind bake means that we are baking the dough alone, without the ganache. You can put some dried beans on the dough to add weight so it will stay flat.) Let cool down.

For the ganache:

• 1 ¼ cup of dark chocolate chips (or 300g)
• 1 ¼ cup hevy whipped cream
• 1tbsp honey or maple syrup (to taste)
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter (chunks)

You need to put the chocolate chips and the butter in a bowl. Separately, heat the cream until simmering. Remove from heat and pour in the bowl, while stirring gently until everything is melted. Add the honey (and since if it is to taste, you have the right to lick the spoon, just to try it! Do not thank me!)

*And please, please, do not stir it like a brute, you do not want air going in the ganache, because it will transform into bubbles all over the tart, and it will suck!

Afterwards, pour carefully (yes, my dear, baking needs some sensitivity!) the ganache on the crust and put on the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Now it is time to roll up your sleeve and make a prayer for what comes after!

For the painful decoration with hazelnuts:

• Sugar
• Hazelnuts
• toothpicks
• Tape
• A non-stick pan

First of all, prepare the ground: the caramel is going to make strings, so I will advise you to protect every item between the pan and the tart. Then you pick the hazelnut with the toothpicks on the round side (in opposition to the pointed part). Finally, pre-cut some tape.

You will then make a dry caramel, aka just sugar in a non-stick pan. Let melt without stirring until the caramel goes light-brown.

Be careful, this is where it starts to get exasperating complicated: you dip the hazelnut into the caramel, taking it out slowly so the string will appear. Then you will let dry the thing upside down, by taping the toothpick on the kitchen buffet. When the caramel goes hard again, you can re-heat it, it will re-melt, you will re-dip, etc, etc, …

Let me say that you are going to try it a few times 49 times to be precise, to get 3 “average” hazelnut (Believe me, you don’t want to know how many of those you will make before the first “pefect one”!). But don’t worry, the more you do, the easier it gets! And you are allowed to swear during the process. It will not help you, but it feels good!

Bon appétit!