A Wednesday Chocolate Tart

Wednesdays really aren't that great. It's right smack in the middle of the week, but once you get over it, you're on the other side, yipee! I was having a pretty blah Wednesday this week, at least during the work day.

But in the evening, I got to see my favorite niece, spend time with family and go to a dance class with Nikita, which was a great workout.

I love that I worked out and sweated for an hour and then came home to make my buttery chocolate tart. Yum.

Chocolate makes my world go round =)

Side note: It's really fun to melt butter and chocolate together. It's so gorgeous to look at! What's not so fun is having my mom make fish cakes right next to me. Fish and chocolate aromas do not mix.

But anyway, I found this tart recipe online and decided to adapt it a little. I added some almond extract to it, and sprinkled a few almonds on top. Everyone seemed to think I put almond paste or ground almonds in the crust but I didn't. I did spill a little more extract into the bowl than I should have. I also added some vanilla extract just because.

This was a MONSTROUS tart. 12 inches! I don't know what I was thinking buying a 12 inch tart pan. I mean, it was $5 so I wasn't going to pass that up, but I was a bit scared to bake in it. I almost considered borrowing a smaller pan from J. I thought, giant chocolate tart?! Who's going to eat all that?! I'm going to be stuck with a huge tart for a week!

Also, I've truthfully never tasted a chocolate tart in my life. I wasn't even sure if I would like it. But the person who posted the recipe online promised that it wasn't too heavy so I thought I'd try it out.

The tart turned out pretty perfect; I was rather surprised! I didn't realize the complexities of baking a crust, or that most people buy a crust instead of making it... I made one just fine, and had some dough left over too.

By Friday morning, there were only about 3 slices of the tart left. That's pretty crazy! I still can't get over how fast it went. I liked nibbling on it throughout the day but it's too much to eat all at once. It definitely leaves you wanting more though. This tart is for dark chocolate lovers only, and for people who don't like their desserts so sweet.

It was also incredibly easy to make (you do have to wait for the dough to chill for at least an hour) and it's the perfect dessert to bring to a party! A little slice is more than enough and goes a long way. (I'm considering making a mini one to bring to STL!)

This recipe is for an 8in tart.. I doubled the crust recipe so I would have leftovers, and just aded an extra egg and extra ounce of chocolate, etc. I don't have the exact measurements so it's better to stick with the 8in recipe!

My adapted Recipe:

For the crust:

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 egg yolks

2 flat cups all-purpose flour

For the chocolate filling:

 3 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter

7 oz dark, bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

For the pastry:

Put the butter, sugar and egg yolks into a bowl and mix with electric beater. Add the flour and blend until it forms a homogenous paste. Roll out into a disk, and put on a sheet of parchment paper. Cover both sides with the parchment paper and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the parchment paper from the dough disk and place the disk in the pan. It'll be easier to spread it in the pan that way. After you have done this, take the piece of parchment paper and cover the pan and dough with it. I just lightly pressed the paper on top and it didn't lift off, but if it does, you can use dried beans (I used almonds) to weigh the paper down. This is called blind baking. Bake the pastry for about 25 minutes. It should be a pale buscuit color, but thorouly cooked through. Remove the tart pan and remove the beans and paper. Increase the heat to 375F.

For the filling:

Vigorously beat the egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the top of a double boiler, stirring until the mixture is smooth. Pour the just-warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Beat together the egg and chocolate mixture until well combined, then pour into the pastry shell. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, remove and let cool.

It took a long time to cool down so I put it in the fridge. Even then, the chocolate never really "sets", per se... Happy Baking! :)