Friday, August 14, 2009

Chocolate Tart


Good chocolate, dark chocolate, seriously bitter chocolate… how dark can you go? Do you stop at 60% or can you take the almost no sweetness of 85% cocoa solids that stays on your tongue with no holds barred, chocoholic, I’m-in-need-of-a-fix madness.

Looking for a chocolate tart recipe for a grown-up dinner party, I was thinking really bitter chocolate in a light pastry case: dark chocolate flavour and richness to complement an orange sorbet and the guava parfait that I’d just discovered. Chocolate with no distractions, was the mission and I finally found a recipe that worked perfectly.

It was a chocolate tart to end all chocolate tarts, as dark and rich and grown up as they come. Served with a scoop of guava parfait and one of orange sorbet it was the perfect ending to a meal. The orange offset the bitterness of the dark chocolate I’d used and the guava added an extra flavour dimension and creamy texture.

Chocolate tart before baking

Chocolate, cream and eggs fill a blind baked pastry case and then bake to a rich and solid, extremely chocolatey filling, where the pastry serves just as a container, a plain foil to its filling. Mine didn’t have the smooth and sleek looks of the official recipe photograph, but it tasted like chocoholic heaven!

I used my own sweet pastry recipe and bought really good chocolate – one bar of Lindt 85% and one of Lindt 65%, which combined perfectly to make it bitter but not so bitter as to shock the palate. I think their 75% would work just as well, but the shop was out of it.

Just out of the oven

At dinner the dessert faded the conversation to silence. Everyone was too busy savouring the flavour combinations and getting exactly the right amount of orange sorbet with a nibble of chocolate tart. I served thin slices, so the tart easily went round the eleven of us, with plenty to spare for those tempted to embark on seconds. I wish I’d photographed a slice of tart plated up with the scoop of orange sorbet and one of guava ice cream. It looked stunning, even though my presentation isn’t quite as neat as it could be. When can we have another dinner party? I can't wait to bake this again!


(Edited to add: This is the chocolate tart recipe I used.)

6 comments:

  1. I knew it, I just knew it.

    You're trying to kill us all.

    Death by salivation.

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhh!

    *sploooosh*

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  2. Recipe! I must have this recipe!!

    Please?

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  3. Oh God, this isn't the place to come when I'm on a diet.

    And I wish I were in South Africa...

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  4. Sorry to be so cruel, Marcheline!

    Elizabeth, I have linked to the recipe in the post - I'll jsut highlight it a bit more. Enjoy it!

    Mary - the orange sorbet recipe I linked to is perfect for a diet, healthy and enough flavour to satisfy without having to have too much of it... and you could just nibble at a tiny square of dark chocolate with it. Hardly any calories when it's so dark and bitter!

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  5. That looks so wonderful, thanks for sharing!

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  6. Holy guacamole. Can I come to your next dinner party??

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Thanks for your comments - I appreciate every one!