Less is more when it comes to this decedent tart.
Notes
I made this tart for dessert one evening during our recent trip to France. The orchards surrounding the property where we were staying were laden with cherries, just dripping and heaving with them. What to do with such a fabulous load of scrumptious fruit? Why, stick them in a chocolate tart of course!
Now, whilst not the season for cherries in Australia right now, it is Bastille Day this Saturday and I felt like reminiscing…oh Provence! How wonderful you were!
Have a facebook peek at some snaps of this chocolate dream, tarted up with cherries!
Ingredients – pastry
180g unsalted butter, chopped
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp iced water
Ingredients – filling
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar
150g butter
240g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
cocoa for dusting
optional cherries
double cream to serve
Grease a 28cm round tart tin with removable base. To make the pastry, pulse the butter and sugar together in a food processor until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolk and pulse to combine. Add the sifted flour and cocoa, pulse, then add the water and pulse to combine. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 2 hours.
Once chilled, remove the dough from the fridge and press evenly into the prepared tin. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 200C. Remove the tin from the freezer and cover the base of the pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice. Bake for 10min then remove the paper and weights, gently push the pastry back into the tin and bake for a further 15-20min until lightly golden. Set aside to cool.
Reduce the oven to 130C. To make the filling, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar together with hand-held electric beaters. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Pour into the pastry shell, if you want, you can now add in your cherries then bake for 15min until filling is set around the edges but still wobbly in the middle. Set aside to cool. Dust with cocoa (optional) and serve with a dollop of double cream.
