Chocolate Ganache Tart

Its been 2 months since I’ve moved roles. From Skin Cleansing and making the world a more Hygienic place to Hair Care, all about beauty. It’s been busy so I’ve been missing, but mostly been lazy and tied up baking! I’ve baked a lot – just not had a the time to share it and sit down and put my thoughts together and share.

My best moments in baking have been cracking my pie crust! I’ve made numerous attempts to perfect my pie crust and I think the last few ones I have posted here really have been the best to date. But NOW, really..NOW, I think I’ve finally perfected the tart crust as I would like it to be. Honestly this one was done in complete trial and error.

I started with the usual way of getting ingredients ready, cold butter, cold water and dry ingredients.  What was different this time? MORE BUTTER, MORE flour! I think previously my quantity wasn’t right so I would roll out the dough and even though it would look nice and pretty, it was too thin and wouldn’t rise up enough as well because the dough was rolled out thin. Well not anymore  😀

The errors I made and how I fixed it? Well the usual cut the butter with the dough cutter into the flour and then mix with water after it looks like coarse crumbs, check! But thing is, I didn’t wait for it to mix that much and instead I ended up having big cubes of butter in the dough which looked pretty and the thought of it being buttery and flaky was great but once it was set and I started rolling it out, complete disaster! So I got it all together, clumped it back into a ball, added more flour and there it was..the dough coming together and looking like I would have seen on cooking shows and celebrity chefs rolling it out.

I rolled it into a 10 inch tart dish, baked blind and then went ahead and let it cool down. Once cooled I added chocolate Ganache, let it set in the fridge, preferably overnight so the ganache could be nice and dense and then serve cold or at room temperature. Next time, need to do a caramel version with ganache!

Ingredients
1 1/2 C flour
1 cup butter (cold and cut into tiny pieces)
3 tbsp ice cold water
pinch of salt
500g chocolate (milk or dark/bittersweet)
300ml double cream

1. Directions
2. Mix flour and butter together until it looks like coarse bread crumbs, its best to do this with a pastry cutter. The cutter will work the butter evenly into the flour to mix together
3. Finally add 3 tbsp water, add one at a time until the dough just comes together. Wrap in a cling film and let  it rest in the fridge for 30mins
4. Once chilled, unwrap the dough and in between 2 cling films roll it out to cover an 10″ tart tin. Place it on the tin, poke with a fork, layer with pie weights and pop into pre-heated oven for 20-25mins or until done
5. While the pie is baking, chop chocolate into fine pieces and boil the double cream till scalding point and pour over the chopped chocolate. Mix together to form a ganache and use a whisk in the end for the smooth glossy finish. Set aside to cool down
6. Once the crust is ready, leave to cool until it comes to room temperature and pour the cooled ganache on top
7. Set the tart in the fridge for 2-3 hours, or until firm and dust with cocoa before serving