FoodFamily

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Friday, August 14, 2009

Chocolate Tart

Posted on 6:34 AM by Unknown

Good chocolate, dark chocolate, seriously bitter chocolate… how dark can you go? Do you stop at 60% or can you take the almost no sweetness of 85% cocoa solids that stays on your tongue with no holds barred, chocoholic, I’m-in-need-of-a-fix madness.

Looking for a chocolate tart recipe for a grown-up dinner party, I was thinking really bitter chocolate in a light pastry case: dark chocolate flavour and richness to complement an orange sorbet and the guava parfait that I’d just discovered. Chocolate with no distractions, was the mission and I finally found a recipe that worked perfectly.

It was a chocolate tart to end all chocolate tarts, as dark and rich and grown up as they come. Served with a scoop of guava parfait and one of orange sorbet it was the perfect ending to a meal. The orange offset the bitterness of the dark chocolate I’d used and the guava added an extra flavour dimension and creamy texture.

Chocolate tart before baking

Chocolate, cream and eggs fill a blind baked pastry case and then bake to a rich and solid, extremely chocolatey filling, where the pastry serves just as a container, a plain foil to its filling. Mine didn’t have the smooth and sleek looks of the official recipe photograph, but it tasted like chocoholic heaven!

I used my own sweet pastry recipe and bought really good chocolate – one bar of Lindt 85% and one of Lindt 65%, which combined perfectly to make it bitter but not so bitter as to shock the palate. I think their 75% would work just as well, but the shop was out of it.

Just out of the oven

At dinner the dessert faded the conversation to silence. Everyone was too busy savouring the flavour combinations and getting exactly the right amount of orange sorbet with a nibble of chocolate tart. I served thin slices, so the tart easily went round the eleven of us, with plenty to spare for those tempted to embark on seconds. I wish I’d photographed a slice of tart plated up with the scoop of orange sorbet and one of guava ice cream. It looked stunning, even though my presentation isn’t quite as neat as it could be. When can we have another dinner party? I can't wait to bake this again!


(Edited to add: This is the chocolate tart recipe I used.)
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in Food, Recipes | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Old-fashioned Ginger Cake
    Sometimes the old recipes are the best. No tweaking, no ‘making it my own’ was needed for this lovely moist, aromatic  ginger cake.  It’s on...
  • Books
    In my latest exploration around the web, I've just discovered a tantalising site. Called Book Mooch it is a book swap site. You ca...
  • Risotto and A Marcella Hazan Recipe
    Jeanne at Cooksister wrote a great post on risotto recently, covering all the important points of cooking one properly and featuring a ver...
  • The Colours of Christmas
    Christmas colours in sunshine country! You no longer have to stick to the traditional red and green of mid-winter Christmases, but a new sch...
  • Rubbing Shoulders with Poverty
    It was Blog action day on Wednesday. I saw it on Charlotte ’s Web , where she posted about AIDS in South Africa . The theme that they asked...
  • Berry Muffins Too Early On A Weekend Morning
    It’s early for a weekend morning. Consciousness dawns and with it a reminder that I need to bake muffins for my husband to take in to his ph...
  • Winter Holiday
    Winter in London is a long drawn out affair of short dull days and chill, damp weather enlivened by mild, muggy weather with the occasional ...
  • Nine Men Morris
    This is a game that my son brought home from school. I'd never heard of it before. It is simple enough for a child of 6 or 7 to grasp th...
  • Hell freezing over?
    I read this on Ryze.com when I was dutifully networking this morning. It gave our muscles such a great workout, with the gasping and splutte...
  • Muffin Meme
    Oatmeal and yogurt muffins It's official - muffins are the new meme. This oatmeal and yogurt muffin recipe is whizzing around the glob...

Categories

  • #Afrikado (2)
  • #bakebrave (1)
  • #FreshlyBlogged (8)
  • Animals (28)
  • Blogging (67)
  • Books (13)
  • Braai (2)
  • Children (226)
  • Christmas (25)
  • earth hour (3)
  • England (8)
  • etc (26)
  • Festivals (40)
  • Flowers (15)
  • Food (177)
  • Frugality (4)
  • Garden (11)
  • Green living (9)
  • Health (3)
  • Herbs (8)
  • Houshold Tips (4)
  • Kitchens (1)
  • Living in South Africa (161)
  • Meme (22)
  • Musing (28)
  • Photography (9)
  • Poems (4)
  • Recipes (82)
  • Restaurants (2)
  • School (46)
  • Travel (13)
  • Working World (13)
  • World Baking Day (1)
  • WTSIM (15)

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (34)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (5)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2012 (35)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (6)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2011 (36)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (36)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (5)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ▼  2009 (65)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (4)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ▼  August (4)
      • Muffins and Marmalade
      • Bring on the Garden Gnomes
      • Chocolate Tart
      • Spring Blooms
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (12)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2008 (68)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (9)
    • ►  October (7)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2007 (118)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (8)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (11)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (14)
  • ►  2006 (108)
    • ►  December (9)
    • ►  November (30)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ►  September (15)
    • ►  August (13)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (15)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile