The first time that I saw this recipe I just knew that I had to make it some day. It combines two of my favorite things for desserts: tarts and chocolate.
I kept forgetting about the recipe and refinding it when I ended up flipping through the cookbook. The idea of making this has been floating through my head for over a year now. I had finally decided to make it with the extra tart dough from the Meyer Lemon Tart but the dough wasn’t really workable when I removed it from the freezer so I had to discard the tart dough. However, by that point, I had already committed to making it and decided to make a fresh tart dough fo rit.
I’d like to say that it was then a transcendental experience upon eating this after such a wait, but it was merely good. It managed to be chocolately but not overwhelmingly so. The chocolate was at a good intensity and it wasn’t at all sweet. What I really noticed was that the chocolate seemed a bit dry. This is probably because I’m mostly used to chocolate desserts being sweeter than this one.
I should probably confess that we didn’t finish eating the tart. It wasn’t possible for me to really eat a lot of the tart at once and it was too much chocolate for Angela. It didn’t help that shortly after I made it I had to travel to the east coast for work.
I would reserve this tart for only the true chocolate lovers.
Chocolat Tarte de Rue Tatin
Adapted from The Great Book of Chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
16 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 large eggs, at room temperature
one 10″ prebaked tart shell
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Warm the heavy cream in a large saucepan until the edges begin to bubble. Remove from the heat.
- Stir the chocolate into the heavy cream until the chocolate has completely melted. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Whisk the eggs into the chocolate one at a time.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie crust and smooth out as much as possible.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the filling is set but not too firm.
- Allow to cool to room temperature and serve with whipped cream.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Pâte Sucrée
Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook
1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 oz.) all-purpose flour
1 tsp nonfat dry milk (optional)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter, cold, cut into tablespoons
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp water
- Combine the flour, dry milk, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix the dry ingredients.
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and water and pulse until the mixture forms a ball.
- Remove the dough from the food processor and roll out into a round to fit the tart shell. Place the dough into the tart shell. Prick the bottom of the tart shell multiple times with a fork. Refrigerate the tart dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
- Place a layer of aluminum foil over the tart shell and place pie weights on top of the aluminum foil.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the crust is set. Remove the aluminum foil and pie weights.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until the crust is browned.
Makes one 9 to 10″ tart shell