Chocolate cream tart seems like an appropriate way to cap off this month of chocolate, with a bitter chocolate crust and rich chocolate pastry cream balanced by lightly sweetened whipped cream and topped off with decorations of pure bittersweet chocolate. It’s a good thing that I don’t get tired of chocolate or have problems with rich desserts.
But I was concerned that Dave, who, after eating his umpteenth brownie, mentioned he’s actually not the biggest chocolate fan, wouldn’t like this. Fortunately, I’d forgotten how much he does like custard and pie, which apparently overshadowed his lukewarm feelings toward chocolate.
I’m always intrigued by Dorie’s tart dough, which calls for almost no liquid, and instead comes together through far more processing than is usually recommended in crust recipes. She then recommends pressing the dough into the pan instead of rolling it out. Am I the only one who hates pressing dough into pans? I don’t think it’s any less work than rolling it out. I did have to roll it out for the little brioche pans, because in my experience, pressing crusts into these deeply fluted edges results in a huge buildup of crust in the ridges. I pressed the crust into the flat tart pans, and I like both crusts equally.
The pastry cream is pretty luscious stuff. I did reduce the cornstarch a bit, remembering how the last few times I’ve made a cornstarch-containing custard from Dorie, the cornstarch didn’t seem to completely dissolve. I don’t mind a softer pastry cream anyway. Also, I missed that the chocolate was supposed to be melted before it was added to the pastry cream until it was too late to do anything about it, so I just finely chopped it and stirred it into the hot cream. It worked great, so this a timesaving trick I’ll keep in mind for the future.
Overall, I thought the tart was pretty great. Some TWD members indicated that they would have rather had a regular tart crust instead of the chocolate crust, and I wholeheartedly disagree. Usually I think tart crusts just get in the way of the filling, but I felt like the chocolate crust complimented, rather than detracted, from this dessert. All of the components, bitter and sweet, rich and light, balanced each other well.
Kim has posted the recipe.
One year ago: Carrot Cake
I love the little brioche pans! So cute. I went with the sweet tart dough this time but I definitely want to try the chocolate crust sometime.
I really love your tiny chocolate designs that you placed in the tarts! They look beautiful!
Looks delicious and I wouldn’t have thought of baking the tarts in brioche pans! I have a set that I have yet to use so I’ll have to try baking tarts in them soon!
Your tarts look lovely, especially the chocolate decorations. Well done!
I love the brioche pans, mini desserts are so great. I love the chocolate decorations too.
I do not think I’ve seen better looking or cuter tarts yet!! Fabulous!
Love the tarts. Love the plates. I did the mini minis as well!
This looks divine!!
Ooooh pretty plates! Love ’em 🙂 Unfortunately 90% of the time I have to press the dough in, as it’s hard to transfer or roll without stickiness or oil slicks (from the melting). Yours turned out gorgeously. Send some of your future chocolate stuff if Dave doesn’t want them 😉
Beautiful pictures! By the way I made the CI brownies last night. They are really good. I still prefer the Outrageous Brownies, but the boys really liked CI. Thanks!
Oh I love these, they are picture perfect!
Oh. That. Looks. Fantastic. The chocolate designs on top really take it over the top.