This tart recipe is based on one made by renowned French chef Joël Robuchon. It's simple to make,
deeply bittersweet and quite rich. The berry "dust" is an optional addition and gives the tart a modern
edge. In fact, garnishing dishes with "dust" (dehydrated, powdered ingredients) is a simple way to zip up
your cooking and surprise your guests. The tart shell includes almonds, but skinned hazelnuts could be
substituted.
MAKES ONE 9-INCH TART
1 plump vanilla bean
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 -3 tablespoons slivered or blanched, sliced almonds
¾ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
7 ounces imported bittersweet chocolate*, grated or finely chopped (I use Valrhona or Callebaut)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
* make sure not to use extra-bittersweet chocolate, since the tart has no added sugar and this would
create an under-sweetened result
Optional: berry dust and fresh raspberries as garnish (see instructions below)
1. Flatten the vanilla bean and cut it in half lengthwise. With a small spoon, scrape the seeds into a small
bowl. Add the egg yolk and stir to blend.
2. In a food processor, combine the sugar and almonds and process until the nuts are finely ground. Add
the flour and salt and process to blend. Add the butter and process just until the mixture resembles
coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk mixture and pulse until the dough holds together. It's okay if it forms
a ball (I view this as sort of kneading the dough). Use a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.
An option is to cut a piece of parchment paper the size of the bottom of the pan in order to be able to
remove the tart from the pan easily before serving.
3. Make little "snakes" of dough with your fingers and press them around the sides of the tart pan,
forming the right shape and thickness. Your fingers will work fine to shape and flatten the top of the
sides. Spread the remaining dough across the bottom, using your fingers to make everything even.
Freeze it until ready to bake. (The original recipe had a painstaking process of rolling out the dough,
which I never do for tart dough.) Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour. Or freeze for up to a
week.
4. Preheat the oven to 375° (convection bake if possible). Prick the chilled or frozen dough all over
with a fork. Set the tart pan on a cookie sheet. I recommend putting a large piece of parchment paper
filled with pie weights or dried beans into the bottom. (If you use waxed paper, it will remove some of
the tart dough when removed, so it isn't optimal.) Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and
carefully remove the parchment and weights. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes, until it's a
bit golden. If the top edges seem to be getting too brown after the first 10 minutes (quite likely), crimp
narrow strips of aluminum foil over them. Transfer to a rack and let cool before filling. Remove the
strips of foil before adding filling.
1. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream and milk to a simmer. Remove from the heat. Add the
chocolate; stir until melted. Let cool to lukewarm and then whisk in the egg until thoroughly blended.
2. Pour the custard in the pastry shell; bake in the middle of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the
filling is almost set but still trembling in the center. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. If you don't want to
include the berry dust, consider serving the tart a little warm, which enhances the chocolate richness.
Freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries are available at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and possibly other
places. They are not sweetened before being dried. Trader Joes has blueberries, raspberries and divine
strawberries. Whole Foods has these three, as well as peaches, cherries, pears, pineapple, apples,
mangoes, bananas, peas, tomatoes, corn -- possibly more items as well. Raspberries are optimal for the
chocolate tart.
The trick of the berry dust is to make it right before garnishing the tart. If you make it and let it sit, it
will clump up and you'll need to press it through a fine sieve to "re-dust" it. Believe me, this is a big
pain. Making the dust is simple: put the berries in a blender (recommended option: add a little sugar)
and blend until they're pulverized. For the raspberries, I also ran the dust through a fine sieve to
remove the small seeds afterward. As you'll see in the photos, the berry dust on top of the tart is in a
design. I bought stencils at a crafts store to do this. (To be specific: Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts in Los Altos.)
However, you can simply dust the whole top of the tart, use a paper doily or other object as a stencil ,
or make designs by hand if you're artistic. Important: if using stencils of any kind, the tart must be room
temperature or the stencil will stick to the filling.
Other options are to sprinkle berry dust around the outside of the tart as additional garnish and add
fresh raspberries around the edges of the tart (do this AFTER applying the dust) as seen in the photo.
The raspberries aren't sweetened or glazed, but they can be if you're so inclined.
Based on Mexican Chocolate Cake – from Pat Joy
Ingredients:
• 4 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1-1/4 tsp. soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chili powder
Frosting
• 2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup butter
• 8 Tbsp. milk
• 4 cups powdered sugar (I used a lot less!)
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter in the hot water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Mix well with a wire whisk or eggbeater. Then stir in buttermilk, soda, eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Pour into 13x9" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until the top springs back when touched with a fingertip. Make the frosting while the cake is in the oven.
While the cake is baking, make the frosting. In a heavy saucepan, melt 2 squares chocolate and 1/4 cup butter together. Add powdered sugar, milk,, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and 2 tsp. vanilla and beat well. You may need to add more milk or powdered sugar to reach the desired consistency: the frosting should be pourable.
When the cake comes out of the oven, let cool for 15 minutes, then pour the frosting over. Spread if necessary, and let the cake cool. 16 servings
How Judy adapted the above for cupcakes: The cooking time was 18-20 minutes as I recall and I made the frosting thicker and with less sugar for the cupcakes. For the cake it would be more of a glaze, but I was still told to use less sugar.
http://www.allchocolate.com/recipes/chocolate-hazelnut-soup.aspx
I used Ennis Hazelnuts from Holmquist
(http://www.holmquisthazelnuts.com/), which are better tasting and a little sweeter than "normal" hazelnuts.
And I skipped the orange oil. (I didn't find it at the store, and my attempt to make it according to their directions yielded grapeseed oil with just a hint of orange scent/flavor.)
This was a little souvenir of all the previous chocolate tastings. Three kinds of chocolate were used: El Rey, Valhrona 72% and dark chocolate fondant (available in little tubs at Sur la Table, or you can make your own by melting chocolate and mixing it with some corn syrup and letting it set for awhile and then kneeding it and rolling it out. The vase contained a real rose bud and a couple of purple princess flower blossoms. The El Rey and 72% Valhrona chocolate was melted with a couple of tablespoons of port and/or a couple of tablespoons of almond oil for the various forms. In addition, it had a little icon for the theme for each of the previous events, and some chocolate items modeled from the fondant (a book, a tabloid newspaper, a star). Below, there was a little cup for each of the themes and these included:
1990 first year (no theme), 'grape expectations': Valhrona 72% covering grapes and then rolled in Penzey's high fat cocoa.
1991 Operation Dessert storm: tank carrying granades (as above, but no grapes inside, pure chocolate) riding on a toy tank with a flower molded chocolate flower coming out the end.
1992 Election (campaign buttons): El Rey discs with the word 'vote' carved with a knife and the shavings rolled into the carved out result to make light writing against the dark chocolate of the disc.
1994 Tabloid News (alien eggs): with a newspaper announcing that alien Bible indicates they worship chocolate and seem to be chocolate-based life forms rather than carbon-based, the El Rey crunchy BB sized chocolate bits.
1995 Movies (popcorn): popcorn popped in almond oil and coated with a bit of the chocolate used for the truffles.
1996 Olympics (rings): there was one 5-circle set of chocolate covered pretzel pieces. The little cupcake paper cup was filled with chocolate covered pretzels.
1998 Books (book worms): roll the fondant into little worm-like twisty segments of various sizes and embed the BB-sized crunch El Ray chocolates onto them.
1999 Milennium (welcome to the Os): these are the El Rey pieces shaped like 'feves' ---- cocoa beans (they look like Os to me...)
2001 Power: the El Rey chocolate covered coffee beans on a bed of chocolate covered pop rocks.
2003 Only in California: put the Valhrona 72% bar into the microwave at half power for a minute and then check and repeat until just soft enough to get a sunglasses shaped cookie cutter to cut out some shapes. These were put into the cupcake cup intermingled with some 'joints' made by rolling 'paper' from the fondant and filling the paper with the chopped up remains of the shavings from carving out the 'votes' for 1992 and the edges leftover from the sunglasses.
2005 Art (paint brushes): Some of these paint brushes were made in chocolate molds, some were carved up remains of other cookie cutter pieces, and some were modeled out of the fondant.
2007 Spring (flowers and spring): One spring (visible in the photo above) was modeled out of the fondant, the rest were flowers using a plastic chocolate mold and the Valhrona chocolate made a little softer with the port and/or almond oil.
2008 Politics (stars): These were made just like the sunglasses, only using a star cookie cutter.
(also known as Peppermint Patti)
Fill a martini shaker with ice
Add:
½ cup Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur
¼ cup Peppermint Schnapps
¼ cup cream
Shake and pour into 6 shot glasses (no, you don’t have to have the Giants’ logo on the glasses but the Dodgers just won’t cut it)
Grate a bit of your favorite dark chocolate bar on top
If it’s Giants’ season, you’ll want to add a bit of yellow and red food coloring before you shake!
Commenting on the fact that an egg cream contains neither eggs nor cream:
Cream:
Add & mix:
Mix together:
Then add to above egg mixture with 1/2 C milk
Add:
Mix & pour into a greased & floured 10inch tube pan..
Bundt pan works well. Bake @ 350 for one hour.
Cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn out of pan for cooling.
Sunset Sep 1974