Chocolate tart: ganache poured into a shell, and nothing more
The simplest of elegant desserts: a shortcrust shell and ganache. The filling is not baked, so there is no risk of cracking or curdled egg — you only have to hit the ratio and not stir too early. That ratio is 3 parts chocolate to 2 parts cream, a little looser than for truffles; the ganache then sets firmly enough to slice while staying creamy. Everything else is a shell that must be baked properly through.
Your own work in that: 2 h 10 min.
- Pastry shell 110 min
- Ganache 20 min
- Setting 125 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake the cocoa shortcrust
Combine the flour, cocoa, icing sugar and salt, add the cold butter and chop it in to crumbs. Add the yolk and iced water and bring it together in a minute, only until it holds. Wrap and chill 45 minutes.
Ingredients: 220 g plain flour · 25 g cocoa · 130 g butter · 70 g icing sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · 2 tbsp iced water · 1 pinch salt
TipCocoa pastry is dark, so colour is no guide to doneness. Go by the timings and test the base by touch: it should be dry and hard.
Line the tin and freeze it
Roll to 3 mm and line a 24 cm loose-bottomed tin, pressing into the fluted sides. Trim the excess, prick the base with a fork and freeze 20 minutes — frozen pastry does not shrink in the oven.
Three millimetres, then twenty minutes frozenBlind bake all the way
Line with paper, fill with baking beans and bake 20 minutes at 190 °C. Remove the beans and bake another 10 minutes, until the base is dry and hard in the middle. Cool it completely — a warm shell melts the ganache and it will never set properly.
Twenty minutes with beans, ten withoutPour hot cream over the chocolate
Chop the chocolate very finely into a bowl. Bring the cream with the honey and salt to the boil and pour it over so the chocolate is completely covered. Wait 60 seconds without stirring.
Ingredients: 300 g dark chocolate, 70 % · 200 ml cream, 30 % · 40 g butter · 1 tbsp honey · 1 pinch salt
TipDuring that minute the hot cream melts the chocolate through. Stirring straight away cools the mixture before the chocolate has melted: lumps remain, the ganache splits more easily and comes out greasy and dull.
Pour over and leave it alone for a minuteStir from the centre outwards
Put the spatula in the middle and stir in small circles, gradually widening. A smooth, glossy mass appears at the centre — the sign the emulsion has taken. Finally beat in the soft butter.
Small circles from the centre until it shinesPour and set
Pour the ganache into the cooled shell and level it by tilting the tin rather than with a spatula — that gives a mirror surface. Leave at room temperature for 2 hours. Before serving, scatter with flaky salt and serve with raspberries.
Ingredients: 1 tsp flaky salt · 100 g raspberries
TipSet it at room temperature, not in the fridge. In the fridge the surface dulls, moisture and a pale bloom can appear on it, and the ganache sets hard instead of staying creamy.
Levelled by tilting, not with a spatula
Before you start
Which chocolate
60 % minimum, ideally 70 %. Milk chocolate has far fewer cocoa solids and will not set at this ratio — if you want milk chocolate, use 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream.
Cutting
Cut with a long knife dipped in hot water, wiping it between slices. Ganache sticks to a cold blade; a hot knife passes through it like butter.
Variations
Two tablespoons of rum or whisky in the ganache, orange zest infused in the cream (steep 10 minutes and strain), a pinch of chilli or cinnamon. Add all of them with the butter, at the end.
How long it keeps
Up to two days in a cool room (about 20 °C or below), under a dome; in a warmer kitchen, or for longer, in the fridge, taken out an hour before serving. The fridge is not its friend day to day, though: the base softens and the ganache loses its shine and turns hard, so don't keep it there longer than necessary.
