Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for since week one of Masterchef Australia 2012 – the chance to make the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart, made by Audra. Ever since I saw her create it on one of the first episodes, I knew I had to give it a go. It’s not a recipe for the faint hearted, or anyone in a rush. There are five elements to prepare for this recipe so you will need baking and refrigeration time for some elements. The recipe recommends 1½ hours preparation and 45 minutes cooking but if you’re an amateur like me, that time could be longer (in total it took me 3 hours to have everything except the cream done and in the fridge setting).

Below I have split the recipe into the sections so you will see the list of ingredients for that element and how I prepared it, then I will move on to the next element.

To see more step by step photos visit my Facebook page

What you will need for the Pastry:
225g plain flour
Pinch salt
2 Tbsp Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
140g Unsalted butter, cold and chopped
2 Tbsp Iced Water

Ingredients for pastry
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and cocoa in a food processor and whiz for about 15 seconds or until combined. Next add the butter and whizz until the butter is finely chopped. With the processor still on, slowly pour in the iced water until a dough just starts to form. Then it’s simply a matter of pressing the dough into a ball, wrapping in cling wrap, and placing in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
Pastry ready for the fridge
After 20 minutes (you can do other elements in between, there is no need to stare at the fridge), roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking paper to about 3mm thick. Discard one sheet of baking paper and lay the pastry gently over a 23cm fluted tart tin that has a removable base. With gentle fingers, something I need to learn to have, press the pastry into the tin, taking care around the sides but also making sure that pastry is filling the sides. Remove baking paper, trim the pastry so there are no unsightly pastry hang overs and refrigerate for 20 minutes. For me, this was the one of the most difficult elements. I don’t have a great deal of experience with homemade pastry so excuse the roughness of mine.
Pastry in the tin & ready for the oven
Once out of the fridge, place baking paper over the pastry, fill the pastry with pastry beads or rice and blind bake for 13-15 minutes (I think I actually overcooked mine so be very careful because there is a thin line between undercooked and overcooked). Remove baking paper and pastry beads and bake for a further 10 minutes until the base is dry. Cool in the fridge for 10 minutes. Be really careful with the pastry beads when you take them out of the oven. They are really hot. I picked mine up using the baking paper as a bag and put them in the sink to cool down.
Cooked pastry
What you will need for the Ganache Filling:
500g Dark Chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
200g Unsalted Butter, chopped

Ingredients for dark chocolate ganache
Making ganache can be either very simple or very hard, it has the potential to turn against you in seconds. Whizz the chocolate in a food processor until finely chopped.
Ganache
Place the butter in a large bowl over a saucepan with 3cm of just-simmering water. When the butter has melted, tip the chocolate into the bowl.  Turn off the heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are smooth and there are no chocolate lumps. Keep the bowl on the saucepan until you're ready to use. the ganache. Make sure no water gets into the chocolate as this will cause the chocolate to seize and you will need to start all over again. I have had this happen twice in one night and managed to go through an immense amount of chocolate, not to mention multiple trips to the supermarket.

Remember to allow half a centimetre for the jelly layer when you pour the still-warm ganache into the cooled tart tin. Shake gently to level the ganache. Refrigerate for 10 minutes to set the ganache. I found my ganache needed longer than 10 minutes to set so if you need to keep it in the fridge for as long as possible. You can see in my pics that it wasn’t quite set, look for the pock marks from where I poured the jelly in.

Ganache in pastry ready for the fridge
If you are keener than me to make your own Cherry Port jelly the ingredients and directions are below. If you want to save a bit of time like me, then use Aeroplane Jelly Port Wine flavour (available from Coles and Woolworths).

What you will need for the Cherry Port Jelly or substitute with Aeroplane Jelly Port Wine flavour and
375ml cherry port
2 tablespoons caster sugar
5 leaves gelatine (gold strength)

My cheats Jelly
For the jelly, pour the port and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Soften the gelatine in cold water, squeeze out excess water and add gelatine to the warm port mixture. Stir until dissolved, strain and keep warm until ready to use.

Or follow packet instructions if you using Aeroplane Jelly Port Wine Flavour (or similar).

Pour the warm jelly into a jug, and pour over the ganache gently. Allow to this set in the fridge until ready to serve.

What you will need for the Raspberry Puree:
125g Raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 Tbsp Icing Sugar
1 tsp Corn Syrup or Glucose

Raspberry puree ingredients
To make the raspberry puree, place the raspberries, sugar and glucose into a small saucepan and heat until a liquid forms. Sieve out the seeds.

What you will need for the Cream:
300ml Thickened Cream
2 Tbsp Icing Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean, scraped
Curious fingers - my niece and nephew enjoying the cream
Whip cream with icing sugar and vanilla bean seeds to soft peaks (for photos visit my Facebook page. This is my niece (2)  and nephew (4 ) who were at my heels the entire time I made the cream wanting to help me and be taste testers at every step of the way). 

Serving and decoration
You will need to take the tart out an least an hour before you want to serve it to allow the chocolate to come to room temperature, otherwise, it will be very hard to slice into pieces for your guests. Decorate with the raspberries (about 250g) and edible flowers (if you have better luck than me and can actually find some – everywhere I looked or called said they didn’t have any tiday, but they would next week!).

I served my raspberry puree and cream on the side to allow guests to choose which accompaniment tickled their fancy.
Dark chocolate raspberry tart with raspberry puree & vanilla bean cream

A slice of heaven 
All in all, it was a very time consuming tart to make and a nice experience to eat. I probably wouldn’t make it again though. I can now tick it off my “yummy things I want to try” list.

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