Tarte aux Chocolat a la David Lebovitz

Thanksgiving certainly flew by me without even stopping for a second. It was a glorious day, great weather. Not too warm but still sunny. Any attempt to curb your appetite and watch out your figure should be abandoned from that moment onwards because festive season has officially started.

I, for one, can not imagine festivity without chocolate. A very decadent chocolate at that. I am eternally indebted to David Lebovitz's for his great chocolate tart recipe. Armed with beginner's luck, I managed to get everything right on the first attempt. I also happened to have the foresight to buy chantilly some weeks back, which pleasured the boys silly. I don't like cream on my cakes, and let's not even start on fondant. I don't know why though, but I always love Strawberry Shortcake but always from afar.

I am sure the measurement in his recipe is correct, but I used tart silicon mold and the yield is completely different from David's. Anyway, here's the great Chocolate Tart a la David Lebovitz.

The Tart shell (yield 6 tarts + 3 small-ish shells)

(the one you should go to, if you want a crumbly tart, not one you want to make for your quiche however. Note the ratio of flour : butter is 2 : 3 instead of 1: 2 for normal quiche)

Ingredients:

* 90 gr butter, diced

* 3 tbsp water

* 1 tsp vegetable oil (I used soy bean oil)

* 1/8 tsp salt

* 1 tbsp sugar

* 150 gr flour

How to: 

*Preheat oven to 210 C. Mix all ingredients in a pyrex bowl except the flour. Let it sit for about 15 mins or less, till butter has completely melted and you clearly hear the water boiling & bursting. 

* Take the bowl out from the oven, add in the flour little by little while you whisk at the same time. The texture of the dough will be crumbly. 

* Once it's cool enough to handle, press down into your mold. Not too thin, but not too thick. Poke with fork, lay some beans on top and bake for another 15 mins till the shells start to brown.

* Let cool while you start on the filling. 

Chocolate Filling (enough for 12 tarts + 3 small-ish pies)

Ingredients:

* 250 gr (1 1/4 cup) sugar

* 6 tablespoons warm coffee
* 115gr butter, cubed, at room temperature
* pinch of sea salt
* 115 gr semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 55 gr bitter chocolate, chopped
* 2 large eggs
* 35 gr (1/4 cup) all purp. flour
* 1 tablespoon dark rum or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(I used 1 tbsp white rum and 1 tsp vanilla extract ;))

How to:

* Preheat oven to 180 C. 

* In a cast iron/ heavy bottomed pan (it's a must! use a large one) spread over evenly the sugar. Over medium fire, let it caramelized. Once you start seeing them liquify at the edges, pull towards the center so that the caramelization will happen evenly. 

* Once everything has liquify, turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Watch out, they might splatter out. 

* Add in the butter and salt. Whisk till well incorporated, then add in all the chocolates till melted & smooth. If your caramel started to solidify, just put the pan on the smallest fire and they will liquify again. 

* Let the caramel cool down a little before adding the whisked eggs. David didn't have to, but I waited for about 3 minutes and the eggs still curdled up. Don't be disheartened, nobody complained or noticed. 

* Lastly, stir in the flour, rum and/or vanilla extract. Pour into the prebaked tart shells and bake for 15 mins or so, until the chocolate threatened to crack and yet still jiggly at the middle. 

Note: I happened to use dark chocolate (instead of semisweet one). If you do, serve with chantilly. Bring out your canister and let the child in you come out and play. Let the guests draw silly faces on the tart. It's nice to see how "artistic" some people can be :)

Chocolate Tart #2

Happy thanksgiving! Even if you didn't celebrate, take some moments and give thanks to the one above, for His grace is always sufficient.