Chocolate and I have long been having a rather intense love affair. (Okay, maybe it’s a bit one-sided…)
If you enjoy letting deep, dark chocolate melt in your mouth and slide seductively over your tongue, then this tart is going to blow your mind. It’s just chocolate, plain and simple! It’s like if you took everything that’s amazing about chocolate and multiplied it by a thousand and poured it into a cookie…
Plus, super easy to make!
So if you love chocolate, and if you love your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/any other kind of friend, you should bring your two loves together and serve this tart to that special person immediately.
Basically, all you have to do here is make a cookie crust and fill it with melty chocolate. Easy peasy. The key is to pick a chocolate you really like, because your tart will taste just like whatever chocolate you melt for the filling. I happen to love Nestle chocolate chips…which is maybe a little bit pedestrian, and maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but there you go. So when I make this tart, I don’t go for the fancy Scharfenberger or the Ghirardelli, I just grab a big yellow bag of chocolate chips, pop a few into my mouth, and feel happy.
First, make your shortcrust. This is easy if you have a food processor. Simply blitz the cocoa, confectioner’s sugar, and flour. Then add in your cold butter and egg yolk and process until the mixture becomes fairly even.
Press this cookie mixture into a well-buttered, 9″ or 10″ fluted tart pan. I suppose you could also use a pie plate or a springform in a pinch…it will be easiest to serve your tart if your pan has a removable bottom.
Freeze the crust in the tart pan for about 30 minutes.
Heat your oven to 375°. Tent the cold crust with foil. Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the crust from the oven and discard the foil. Gently press down any particularly puffed areas of the crust with the back of a spoon, then return to the oven for another 8 minutes.
Let the crust cool completely on a wire rack.
When the crust is cool, make your ganache filling. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then immediately pour half of the cream over the chopped chocolate (or, in my case, chocolate chips).
Whisk the cream into the chocolate using small motions. Dorie says that the less you work the ganache, the smoother it will be when it sets. It will be beautiful, like a sheet of chocolate glass…
When the chocolate has completely melted and combined with the cream, repeat with the remaining cream.
Add in the butter, 1 tbsp. at a time. Whisk again, using small motions so as not to overwork the ganache.
As soon as the butter is completely incorporated, pour the filling into the chocolate crust.
Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to several hours. Remove from the fridge about 30 minutes before you intend to serve. Serve with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Tarte Noire
from Baking: From My Home to Yours
serves 12–16
Ingredients:
1¼ cups flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
9 tbsp. unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
8 oz. (about 1⅓ cups) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. heavy cream
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 4 pieces
Directions:
Put the flour, cocoa, and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the pieces of cold butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have pieces the side of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk (just to break it up) and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses, about 10 seconds each, until the dough forms clumps and curds.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparingly knead the dough just enough to incorporate any dry ingredients that escaped mixing.
Press the dough into a 9″ or 10″ buttered, fluted tart pan. Don’t be too heavy-handed; press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbliness. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before baking.
When ready to bake, heat the oven to 375°. Remove the crust from the freezer and set on a baking sheet. Tent with foil.
Bake the crust for 25 minutes, then remove from the oven. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.
Bake for another 8 minutes (without the foil), or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.
When ready to make the filling, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour half of it over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Working with a whisk, very gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the center of the bowl and working your way out in increasingly larger concentric circles. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motion. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. Don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients—the less you work it, the darker, smoother, and shinier it will be.
Pour the ganache into the crust.
Refrigerate the tart for at least 30 minutes to set the ganache. Remove the tart from the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving. Top with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Enjoy!
