Recipe for French Chocolate Tart

This recipe has been a running joke between Ryan and I. You see Ryan has this enormous crush on this contestant called Fiona on Masterchef Australia (my favourite show!!!). This crush is soo huge that there was once when he was slightly annoyed with me he actually hit the pause on Fiona’s segment of the Masterchef intro and declared, “I’m so angry I am going to stare at Fiona for five minutes!” ……Yes Ryan can be pretty amusing at times. Anyway Fiona’s signature dish is a chocolate tart topped with lavender cream and raspberries. It so happened that after that declaration I decided to work on my chocolate tart recipe. Now pause, I need to backtrack slightly. In case you (like Ryan) think that I have a jealousy issue and was trying to compete with Fiona’s tart, my obsession with French chocolate tart has preceded Ryan’s obsession with Fiona by far! Here is photographic evidence!


Just after I quit my job (wheeeeee), we took a short trip to Vietnam. Right next to our hotel was this lovely little French bakery called Une journées a Paris. This bakery is really authentic and has French proprietors. The food presented here was simply delightful

Ryan eating a beautiful quiche


The fresh sandwiches, the flaky pastries and the beautiful beautiful gateaux were to die for. However the one item on their menu which took my breath away and me scream “Vive le Chocolat” (uh I don’t speak French I just used Babel fish) was the beautiful Tart au Chocolat!

I realised I needed to show you how thick the tart was, pardon my tooth marks.


I tried to order 24 to bring back to Singapore but the baker said that it was impossible as the ganache had to set.


Anyway I wanted to recreate this chocolate tart, but as I was researching other recipes (yes even Fiona’s) I realised that a touch of cream and raspberries would add texture and might suit the summery nature of our weather.

The best thing about this recipe is that you can use a toaster oven. You just need to make sure that you buy a smaller tart pan. The ones I have here are 4 inches in diameter It should look like this.

This recipe should yield enough for 3 tarts or if you have a normal oven, it will be enough for a 9 inch tart (I think smaller tarts are cuter though). So if you have the following equipment;

1) toaster oven,

2) tart pan

3) oven proof bowl,

4) grease paper

5) handful of rice/ uncooked beans

6) whisk


Please proceed to make this for your loved ones!


Short Crust Recipe


Gosh this is the best pastry recipe ever. In Singapore it takes forever to make pastry. Most of the time, you would need to refrigerate it for a day, then roll it out on your pastry mat, and fight with the humidity to get it into your tart pan. This recipe requires you almost zilch equipment and really you can get that pastry ready in less than an hour. I can’t take credit for this recipe though, I adapted it from David Lebovitz who adapted it from Paule Caillat.

What you need

One 9 inch tart shell or three 4 inch tart shell

90 g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

150 g (5oz, or 1 slightly-rounded cup) all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 410º F (210º C).

1) In a medium-sized ovenproof bowl, such as a Pyrex bowl (I use a claypot), combine the butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt. You can also place it in the microwave, just remember to watch it!

2). Place the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and starts to brown just around the edges.

3.) When done, remove the bowl from oven (and be careful, since the bowl will be hot and the mixture might sputter a bit), dump in the flour and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4). Transfer the dough to a tart pan with a removable bottom and spread it a bit with a spatula.

5). Once the dough is cool enough to handle, pat it into the shell with the heel of your and, and use your fingers to press it up the sides of the tart pan. Reserve a small piece of dough, about the size of a raspberry, for patching any cracks. The dough should be about a centimeter thick inside the mould

6) Cut a piece of greaseproof paper the diameter of the pan and weigh it down with your beans or rice (they act like pie weights)

6) Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork about ten times, then bake the tart shell in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.

7) Let the shell cool before filling. This would take about an hour to cool


Chocolate Ganache Filling


What you need

Whisk

200grams of good quality chocolate (I recommend Valrhona chocolate, it’s the best!)

100 ml of Cream


1) Place Cream in a heat-proof bowl and place in microwave, alternatively you can heat cream up on stove but make sure that it does not boil.

2) Place chopped dark chocolate into cream and whisk till it reaches a smooth consistency

3) Wait till it has cooled (about 15 minutes) and fill tart shells with the ganache.

4)Place chocolate ganache filled tart shell in the fridge and wait for about 3 hours!

Top your delish chocolate tart with a plop of whipped cream and fresh raspberries or strawberries. If you want to be even more decadent, sift some icing sugar on top of the berries.

Try this recipe! It sounds like plenty of steps but it really requires very little baking equipment and expertise. Besides nothing beats the satisfaction of making your very own Chocolat Tarte!