Persimmon tart with pear jam, ricotta cheese and dark chocolate ganache

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

Persimmon

 

Good morning! 
It’s Tuesday and we are coming off of a busy weekend.  I hope you had a good one.
Ours was full of Christmas events and eating, and eating...and eating, ha ha.

Have you ever tried a persimmon before? 
Few days ago, I baked up this simple tart and tried a combination with this unusual ingredient.
Every year right around this time, they appear at the local market. They’re so good!!!
They look like a big, orange tomato, but they are extremely mild and sweet, and the texture is more like a pear or a very firm plum.

I just waited for them to get very ripe and soft, and sliced them, adding them to the pear jam on the bottom of my cake.  Their flavour works really well with the creamy ricotta filling and chocolate top.
You'll love this tart!

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

 

For the pastry

240 g flour 00
100 g sugar
100 g butter
1 egg
1/2 sachet vanilla baking powder
salt


For the stuffing

250 g pear jam
350 g cow milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ripe Persimmon fruits


For the dark chocolate ganache

100 g dark chocolate
200 ml fresh cream

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, 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. Drain ricotta cheese in a colander and store it in the refrigerator
5. When we are close to the the 1-hour resting time of the pastry, preheat oven to 180°C
6. When ricotta cheese is dry, sift it and mix it in a bowl with sugar
7. Grease and dust the baking pan with flour, 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
8. Peel and cut persimmon fruits into thin slices
9. 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
10. Remove the dried peas and pour the pear jam into the pastry pan. Level well
11. Arrange the persimmon slices on top in overlapping concentric circles
12. Pour the ricotta cream into the pan, and level it well
13. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes. Then, let it cool down
14. Meanwhile, 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
15. Scoop the 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
16. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon, stir and let it cool down. Then, pour the ganache into the pastry pan and level
17. Place the tart in the refrigerator and let it rest for other 3 hours...long, everlasting hours...then enjoy this marvelous cake!

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