Tarte au Chocolat (classic French chocolate tart)

Tarte au Chocolat (classic French chocolate tart)

A sublime chocolate tart! This is almost as easy as the ‘very easy chocolate tart’ and well worth the little bit of extra effort; it can be served warm or at room temperature.

Ingredients

150g dark chocolate - 70% cocoa (Lindt or any other good quality chocolate)

150g unsalted butter

100g sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks            

1 tablespoon brandy (optional)

A 20 cm (8 inch) pre - cooked shortcrust pastry case (readymade or home made)

Optional decoration:

Fresh Raspberries

Cocoa powder

Method

1. Pre - heat the oven to 160˚C.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over a very low heat (or over a bain marie), stirring occasionally while it is melting. Take it off the heat as soon as it has melted.

3. While the chocolate and butter are melting, whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric whisk on high speed until the mixture is thick– this takes between 5 and 10 minutes depending on the speed of your whisk; at the end the mixture should leave a trail like a ribbon when the whisk is stopped and lifted up.

4. Add the brandy and melted chocolate and butter mixture to the whisked eggs and continue whisking it all together, but on very low speed now. (Stop whisking as soon as it is all mixed in.)

5. Pour the chocolate mix into the prepared pastry case and bake it in the centre of a pre – heated oven at 160˚C for about 15 minutes. (It should be slightly ‘wobbly’ in the centre at the end of the cooking time).

6. Wait for the tart to cool down and ‘set’ before serving it - if not serving it straight away keep it in a fridge after it has cooled down. When ready to serve keep the tart out of the fridge for about 30 minutes or warm it up in an oven for a few minutes. (Don’t use a microwave to warm it up as the pastry will end up soggy).

7. Use raspberries to decorate the tart and dust the top with some cocoa powder.

Background Information

I learnt how to make this chocolate tart at a cordon bleu cooking school – I found the original recipe a bit too bitter - it had more chocolate and less sugar than my recipe here – if you prefer a less sweet version then add an extra 50g of dark chocolate and 50g of butter and reduce the sugar to 80g.