Cocoa tart with chestnut jam and Nutella mousse

• 120 minutes to prepare • 35 minutes to cook • Serves 12

Marron chocoglacé

 

This week’s Tuesdays recipe is one that works well with the festive season and is the sort of sweet treat you might expect to find in a beautiful French pâtisserie.

Chestnuts always remind me of Christmas and here, they are nestled in a rich Nutella mousse encased in a sweet, cocoa pastry crust.
I was in kind of a blue mood yesterday, so I deserved some Christmas...in a tart.

Packed with chestnuts, it is, indeed, a rich tart. Almost a little too rich for me but, as I enjoyed this yesterday, I had visions of making tiny bite-sized versions of this, minifying as I love to do!
I think - given the richness - this would be fabulous as tiny petits fours. In the meantime, friends got slivers of this on their “holiday treats” plates!

Here are ingredients for a 12-serving recipe (24-cm diameter baking pan):

 

For the pastry

200 g flour 00
40 g cocoa powder
100 g sugar
100 g butter
1 egg
1/2 sachet vanilla baking powder
salt


For the stuffing

350 g chestnut jam
100 g soft peeled chestnuts


For the Nutella mousse

200 g Nutella cream
2.5 g gelatine sheets
200 ml fresh cream
30 ml Rum


For the topping

30 g dark chocolate

1. Start preparing the pastry: cut the butter into cubes and place it in a bowl. Add sugar, a pinch of salt and knead it quickly
2. Stir in the egg, then mix again. Finally add flour, cocoa powder and vanilla baking powder, all sifted. Knead it again
3. Form a ball, wrap it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour
4. When we are close to the the 1-hour resting time of the pastry, preheat oven to 180°C
5. Grease and dust the baking pan with cocoa powder, then cover bottom and sides with half of the pastry cut into a flattened disc-shape, about 5 mm thick. Place the baking pan in the fridge for 30 minutes
6. Line the pastry with parchment paper and fill it with dried peas. Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes, until you achieve a browned crust
7. Remove the dried peas and pour the chestnut jam into the pastry pan. Level well
8. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes. Then, let it cool down
9. Meanwhile, prepare the Nutella mousse: pour 1/2 cup of water in a medium bowl and dunk the gelatine sheets in it. Let them soften about 5 minutes
10. Drain the gelatine sheets and place them in a small pan with the rum.  Melt them over low heat and keep aside
11. Pour the fresh cream into a bowl. Use a whisk to whip the cream with wide strokes and continue to whip until soft peaks form
12. In another bowl, place the melted gelatine and the Nutella cream. Add the whipped cream and stir gently with a spoon to mix well
13. Meanwhile, finely chop the dark chocolate
14. When the mousse is ready, distribute the soft peeled chestnuts over the jam layer and pour the hazelnuts mousse on top. Level it. Then, sprinkle the dark chocolate on top
15. Place the tin back in the fridge to rest for at least 3 hours

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.