Chocolate and raspberry tart

• 90 minutes to prepare • 50 minutes to cook • 3 hours to cool down • Serves 12

Framboise

 

It's easy to say Chocolate and Raspberry Tart, but which recipe better to use?

One day, in a rainy afternoon, I visited a bookstore and saw a book: Ernst Knam "What is heaven without chocolate?".
Few hours after buying it, I found myself in the kitchen preparing one of his cakes. That was the beginning of my addiction. These recipes are irresistible, even for people like me, who do not particularly like sweets!

For those who do not know Ernst Knam, he is a great pastry chef. He was born in Germany, and he worked in many award-winning restaurants, including Gualtiero Marchesi's. Finally, he opened his own pastry shop in Milan, "L'Antica arte del dolce".

Today, I introduce you to his Chocolate and Raspberry Tart. The preparation is pretty complex, but the result is surprising. The sweetness of chocolate is compensated by the delicate sourness of raspberries, while the hazelnut aroma enhances even more the overall flavor...

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

 

For the pastry

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


For the vanilla custard

2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
250 g  cow milk 
45 g sugar
20 g potato starch


For the raspberry custard

100 g vanilla custard
240 g raspberries
40 g  powdered sugar
15 g butter
15 g hazelnut flour
30 g potato starch
1/2 beaten egg


For the chocolate stuffing

2 egg yolks
1 egg
20 g honey
90 g  butter 
100 g sugar
35 g potato starch
45 g flour 00
25 g cocoa powder


For the dark chocolate ganache

220 g fresh milk cream
300 g chopped 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 170°C
5. Move on to the vanilla custard preparation: pour the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla pod engraved lengthwise and bring to a boil
6. Meanwhile, beat egg yolks 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
10. Place the raspberries in the jar of a blender and puree until smooth; pass through a fine sieve or colander to obtain a puree
11. To prepare the raspberry custard, mix the hazelnut flour, the flour 00, the starch and the powdered sugar in a saucepan. Then add the butter, the egg mixture, the vanilla custard and the raspberry puree. Cook the mixture, while stirring gently, until a temperature of 85° is reached. Let it cool down
12. Finally, prepare the chocolate stuffing mixture: whisk butter with sugar. Then, add honey, egg yolks and the egg. Beat until stiff for about 10 minutes. Finally, add flour, starch, cocoa, and a pinch of salt and whisk well
13. Grease and dust the baking pan with cocoa powder, then cover bottom and sides with the pastry cut into a flattened disc-shape, about 5 mm thick
14. Pour the raspberry custard into the pastry pan and level well
15. Upon the custard, pour the chocolate mixture layer with a sac à poche
16. Bake the cake at 170° 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). Then, let it cool down
17. 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
18. Scoop the chopped dark 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
19. When the dark chocolate ganache is ready, pour it over the chocolate layer and level it. Place the tin in the fridge to rest for at least 3 hours

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

Toi de qui tant de ris framboises
se joignent en troupeaux d'agneaux apprivoisés
chez tous broutant les voeux et bêlant aux délires*

(Stéphane Mallarmé)

* You whose raspberry laughter is joined in a flock of tamed lambs, grazing on vows and bleating to their heart's content