Chocolate tart

• 90 minutes to prepare • 50 minutes to cook • Serves 10

All you need is love.
But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

 

Postpone to Monday your healthiness promises, today I am going to give you the perfect recipe of chocolate tart signed by Ernst Knam.

The chocolate tart is a simple, certainly not trivial, cake. It is a classic, but not just for kids as you might think...it is a perfect treat which makes you feel pampered, even if you are adult!
This version by Ernst Knam is a lovely dessert that would be a wonderful finish to any meal. The cocoa powder is a delicious addition to the tart base, as it is a fabulous taste partner with chocolate. The filling is a scrumptious chocolate ganache made of melted chocolate and fresh milk cream.

One of those desserts that at the beginning "it is only a little bit", then you cut a lopsided square, then you have another last - my word - big slice, and finally the plate is empty.

Here are ingredients for a 10-serving recipe (24-cm diameter baking pan):

 

For the pastry

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

For the stuffing

3 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
250 g  cow milk 
50 g sugar
25 g potato starch
250 g fresh milk cream
350 g chopped milk 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. Move on to the filling preparation: pour the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla pod engraved lengthwise and bring to a boil
6. Meanwhile, beat eggs with sugar until stiff for about 15 minutes
7. Incorporate sifted potato starch to the mixture. Whisk well
8. Pour everything into the saucepan with the hot milk. Let the custard to thicken over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid lumps
9. Pour the custard into a bowl and sprinkle with granulated sugar to prevent skin from forming over the surface. Let it cool down
10. 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
11. Start preparing the chocolate ganache: pour the milk cream into a small saucepan and place it over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Keep an eye on the cream — it's not necessary to boil it. It just needs to get hot: the cream is ready when you can place a finger in the cream and keep it there for 3 to 4 seconds. Turn off the flame and remove the cream from the stove
12. Scoop the chopped milk chocolate into the cream. Stir gently to distribute the chocolate through the cream and let it sit for a few minutes to give the chocolate time to soften and melt
13. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon, stir and let it cool down. Then, mix well the chocolate ganache with the custard
14. Pour the chocolate custard into the pastry pan and level well
15. Take the remaining pastry and roll it out thin and even. Cut the dough into 8 even strips, 2 cm wide, using a blunt knife or a pizza wheel
16. Lay out 4 parallel strips of the pie dough on top of the filling, with about 3 cm space between them. Then place the other 4 strips of dough perpendicular to the parallel strips
17. Trim the edges of the strips flush with the dough of the underlying pie dish, which should be about 1 cm over the sides. Fold back the rim of the shell over the edge of the lattice strips, and crimp to secure
18. Bake the cake at 180° for 50 minutes. (Do not open the oven for at least the first half of the baking time and perform the toothpick test at the end, to be sure baking is done)
19. Let the cake to cool down completely, then transfer it on a serving platter

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

"If there's no chocolate in heaven I do not want to go there"

(Ernst Knam)