Decadent Chocolate Tarts

If you're new to the whole "baking" thing, don't worry - so am I!

Yes, I baked all sorts of cakes and pastries with my mother and grandmother when I was young, but honestly, in the recent years I haven't had the chance to practice AT ALL!

For that exact reason, I wanted to kick things off with this dead easy to make tart!

I recommend using tart moulds with removable bottoms. Why? Its much more easier to remove your tarts from these, then from regular moulds. Slide off the sides and remove the base, and voilà! It's out. Don't torture yourself with the regular ones, its seriously a pain in the tuchus.

In this particular recipe, I used dark chocolate ( 70% cocoa), but you can substitute with virtually anything! Lemon custard, caramel, white/milk chocolate, fruit - the world is your oyster friends!

The 2 main components of the desert: Shortcrust pastry + Chocolate Ganache.

Let's dive into the recipe, shall we?

SHORTCRUST PASTRY:

250g plain white flour
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes + another small amount for greasing
90g caster sugar
1 egg

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

400g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa)
120 ml double cream (essentially the high fat cream which is used for whipped cream)
40g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt + some for the topping

Let's start out with the pastry!

Place your flour and cold butter into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour by using your fingers, or a pastry cutter. Essentially, you want to crumble it up so that the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Once you're there, add in your sugar, and give it a mix. Follow up with the egg, then form a dough. Don't knead the mixture, since this will start to develop the gluten strands, and will also melt the butter. Thus, try to work as quickly as possible. Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in some plastic wrap and set in the fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Once cooled, remove it from the fridge and roll it out as thinly as possible on a lightly floured surface. Brush the inside of your mould(s) with some butter, and drape the pastry over the mould. Now, if you're using a single big mould, drape the entire pastry over it. But, if you're making small tarts, cut out circles which are 1-2 cm larger then the mould itself.

Once the pastry is draped in, lightly press it into the bottom and the sides of the mould.

Using a fork, poke a few holes into the bottom, so that the pastry doesn't rise while it's baking. Leaving a bit more of that extra pastry on the sides will ensure that it doesn't sink to the bottom while it's baking. You can easily cut off the extra bits with a knife once it's baked.

Set the moulds with the pastry into the fridge to cool for approximately 20 minutes before baking them in a 190°C oven, for 12 minutes, or until it turns lightly golden brown.

Usually, shortcrust pastry is blind baked. This means that a piece of parchment paper is placed on top of the base, and filled with either baking beans or rice to give it some weight. This weight will ensure that the pastry doesn't rise while its being baked. After 10-12 minutes, the pastry gets removed from the oven, and is retuned for another couple of minutes to develop colour, without the parchment and the chosen weights.

I find that if you poke the base of the pastry with a fork, and set it in the fridge to cool before you bake it, you can achieve the same result. Use whichever method you like though, I'm just trying to give you some options!

While your pastry is in the oven, make the ganache. Chop up your chocolate or break it apart with your fingers. Take a pot, and fill it with a couple centimetres of water. Set it on a low/medium heat, and find a glass or metal bowl which fits on top of it.

This is called a Bain Marie - a double boiler created so that you can gently melt away your chocolate. Since chocolate burns easily, exposing it to direct heat is not such a good idea.

Check to see if the bottom of the bowl is touching the water. If so, remove some of the water, so that the bowl is not in direct contact with it. That's the only way you can burn it over a double boiler.

To the upper bowl, add in your chocolate, double cream, butter, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Melt away and stir occasionally until you get a glossy and liquid chocolate mixture.

Adding salt to chocolate is never a bad idea, since it enhances and brings out the best of its flavours, and the olive oil gives it a lovely fruity note.

Pour your ganache into the baked pastry. Give it a tap on the surface to remove any existing bubbles, and a swirl or two to distribute it evenly. Cut off the remaining sides with a sharp knife, and set into the fridge to firm up. Sprinkle with a touch of coarse salt before serving.

Another thing that I wanted to recommend is to bake this pastry on its own as biscuits!

Cut it with cookie moulds or with a knife, bake until lightly golden, and you got yourself a proper butter biscuit friend!