Chocolate Tartlet, with Chocolate Ganache

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I found a recipe in Le Cordon Bleu’s Chocolate Bible, for a Chocolate Tartlet, with a soft chocolate filling and topped with a chocolate ganache.  I reproduce the recipe below, or you can find it on Le Corden Bleu website.  

I am never entirely successful with my pastry, it always shrinks somewhat, when in the oven, and when it is too late.  I realise that one cause is overworking the dough, so I was fastidious in following this recipe and hardly worked the pastry at all.  I then chilled it as directed and rolled it out.  I actually measured, by weight the amounts needed and kept the remainder in the fridge as I rolled out each piece individually.  Having lined the pan i then refrigerated again and then removed the excess pastry.  That final step, although part of Le Cordon Bleu’s instruction, for lining a pastry case, was a mistake.  As usual, when baking, the pastry shrank.  Had I left the excess in place I could have trimmed it after baking.

Anyway, I got the cases baked, even though they were not quite as deep as I wanted them.  I should also say that I don’t have the 10cm round tartlet tins mentioned in the recipe.  So I used a twelve hole square cake tin. Each hole was 10cm corner to corner, which means not of the same volume as the round ones.  I therefore had pastry dough and soft chocolate filling mixture over.  No matter, I was able to make some extra tartlets.  So instead of 12 round ones I ended up with 15 square ones.

The result is nice, crisp pastry, with a lovely soft chocolate filling and a shiny ganache on top.  Not perfect, by any means, but certainly good enough to eat, and enjoy doing so.

Chocolate Tartlets
 
Chocolate Tartlet
Ingredients:


Sweet pastry dough:

  • 110 g butter
  • 110 g powdered sugar
  • 45 g ground almonds
  • 210 g flour
  • 1 large egg (60 g)
Soft chocolate filling:
  • 105 g “couverture” chocolate 70 %
  • 60 g butter, softened
  • 60 g ground almonds
  • 90 g egg whites
  • 75 g sugar
  • 45 g flour
Ganache glaze:
  • 150 g chocolate, chopped
  • 150 ml whipping cream
  • 70 g sugar
  • 60 g butter
  • 120 ml water (I didn’t use any water at all)
Method:


Sweet pastry dough:

  1.  Rub the butter into the dry ingredients, add the egg and combine. “fraiser” – mix the dough evenly by smearing it with the fleshy part of the palm of the hand. 
  2. Form into a ball and refrigerate approximately 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
  4. Roll out the sweet pastry dough to a thickness of approximately 3 mm and cut disks 12 cm . Line tartlet molds and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
  5. Bake the tartlet cases in the preheated oven for approximately 10 minutes.
 
Soft chocolate filling:
  1.  Melt chocolate over a bain-marie, remove from the heat and mix in the softened butter. Add the ground almonds.
  2.  Beat egg whites until foamy. 
  3. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the egg whites are smooth, shiny and stiff peaks form. 
  4. Delicately fold in the meringued egg whites, followed by the flour. 
  5. Fill the tartlet shells to 2/3 and bake for 3 to 4 minutes.
Ganache glaze:
  1.  Put the chocolate in a bowl. 
  2. Heat the whipping cream, butter and sugar, pour onto the chocolate and add a little water to obtain a smooth consistency. 
  3. Coat each tartlet with ganache glaze.

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