The tart is very simple and it only requires a few ingredients. You make a crust by creaming together butter and sugar, adding an egg and egg yolk, and slowly incorporating cake flour. After you chill the dough, you roll it out, line a tart pan, freeze the crust, and blind bake it. Even though I weighed down the crust before baking, it shrunk a little in the oven, and the sides lost some height.
.JPG)
The filling is a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, cream, framboise, and an egg. While the recipe is written to include one-quarter cup of framboise, the head note says that you can use one-third cup of Chambord instead (and decrease the amount of whipped cream in the ganache accordingly) for a "more gentle taste." Since I'm not a fan of boozy desserts, the gentle route sounded good to me, so I made the Chambord substitution.
You pour the filling into the partially-baked tart shell and bake until the edges are set. Because I made the tart a day ahead, I kept it chilled overnight, but I let it come back to room temperature before serving. The tart sliced beautifully and cleanly. The filling had a luxurious texture -- rich, creamy, and completely smooth. But the pungent alcoholic flavor was too much for me to take. The Chambord was very strong and I can't even imagine how potent the original version with framboise might be.
Of course, if you like chocolate and are a fan of boozy desserts, this tart might be right up your alley. And I do appreciate the combination of chocolate and raspberry. But even this gentle version of the tart was too intense for me!
Recipe: "Chocolate Framboise Tart" from the December 18, 2002 Los Angeles Times, available here.
Comments