Extraordinaire Tarte Au Chocolat

Fruit is good but Chocolate is Better. Wouldn’t you agree???

Those Strawberry Tarts did not last long with the little ogres that I have at my house and since I am at home not doing a whole lot, I decided to make another dessert from Stephane Glassier. His desserts are so fantastique. They can be a bit of a challenge as they involve many steps but I had plenty of time on hands so that did not scare me. Here we go…

Ingredients for 7-8 3 inches Individual Tartlets:

Almond Pie Crust:

250 gr. of flour
150 gr. of butter at room temperature
2.5 gr. of salt
93.75 gr. of powdered sugar
31.25 gr. of almond mill/ or flour
55 gr. of whole eggs ( which is about 1 egg)

In a large bowl, mix the butter and the flour until the mixture looks like sand.
Add the rest of the ingredients and kneed with your hands, or use a mixer.
Place the dough onto a plastic wrap and shape into a log of about 3 inches. Place the log into the fridge and let it rest for at least an hour.
When the dough has rested, take it out of the fridge.
Cut 1 inch disc, and place it onto a roulpat. Fold the roulpat over the disc, and with a rolling pin, roll the dough into a disc of about 5 inches wide, and 3 mm. thick.
The dough will be too soft to pick up, so lay the roulpat with the dough upside down as shown, and slowly pull the roulpat off the dough.
Push the dough inside the tartlet mold and with your fingers, push the dough so that it will fit perfectly inside.
Repeat steps 5 thru 7 until you have exhausted all the pie crust.
Place the tray back into the fridge to cool again for 1-2 hours.
After the crust has rested, turn the oven to 320 and cook the pastries for 15-20 minutes.
When the pastries are cooked, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely.

Chocolate Filling:

100 gr. of heavy cream
195 gr. of milk
50 gr. of sugar
50 gr. of egg yolks or about 2 1/2 egg yolks
145 gr. of chocolate chips ( preferably Ghiradhelli Bittersweet)

Pour the cream and the milk into a small saucepan and bring it to boil.
Meanwhile in a bowl, beat the egg yolks and the sugar until the mixture become thicker and whitens.
Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture and stir.
Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat while constantly stirring until the mixture thickens and can coat the soon as shown below.
Pour the custard thru a fine sieve over the chocolate chips. Stir with a spoon or a whisk to have a homogeneous mixture.
Cover the container with plastic wrap. Place the custard into the fridge to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the Chocolate Glaze:

125 gr. of heavy cream
100 gr. of Beaume Syrup ( which is 50 gr. of water and 50 gr. of sugar)
50 gr. of glucose. ( you can substitute with corn syrup)
50 gr. of bittersweet chocolate ( ghiradhelli)
250 gr. of chocolate coating

In a small saucepan, put the water, and the sugar and bring to boil until it is becoming a thick syrup.
Add the glucose/ or the corn syrup to the syrup, the cream and the chocolate.
Cook this mixture over a medium heat until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir well. Set aside to cool.

To assemble the tartlets:

Fill the chocolate Mousse into the pastry shells. Place them into the fridge to cool and congeal.
Pour the chocolate glaze over the chocolate mousse.
Place into the fridge to cool, and then decorate the tartlets with chocolate ribbons, macarons and other decorations. I used Candied Meyer Lemons Slices and Sugar Coated Hazelnuts.
Make Candied Lemon Slices,
1. In a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved but does not come to boil. Add 1 -2 Sliced Meyer Lemon and cook at low temperature for 15 minutes until the lemon looks translucent. Let them cool before using them.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

If you like this recipe, I would love for you to subscribe to this blog by entering your e-mail address into the box on the right of this post. Also if you have time, please rate or post a comment. Your comments are always much appreciated. Thank you