Tarte Noire

One of the many things I love about Tuesdays with Dorie is that we make lots of recipes I never would have thought would be good and others which I would have thought were too hard for me. This tarte noire was one of the later. I've enjoyed slivers of deep, dark chocolate tarts in Paris and was in love since the very first one I had.

It was our first trip to Paris and we were still in that first year where you fight a lot have many misunderstandings. We'd had a fight difference of opinion and I stormed out of the hotel and set off walking. I walked all over Paris and in my ultimate act of defiance, I went to La Maison du Chocolat alone. I spied these mini chocolate tarts and I had to have one. Even though I was angry, I wanted to take something back for M., so I asked for four rochers. I was showing off, using the twelve words of French that I know, so I was quite shocked when she handed me a bag with four rocher that were larger than golf balls instead of the tiny bon bons I thought I'd asked for. One of the pitfalls of pretending you speak a language that you don't is you get things you didn't ask for and you have neither the nerve to admit you made a mistake nor the words to ask for what you really wanted. So I headed back to the hotel with the huge chocolate golf balls. I had no idea what kind of mood M. would be in (though, truth be told, his moods were far more rational than mine) but having scarfed down my mini chocolate tart, I was ready to find out.

He had gone out after I stormed out, and at the little grocery store across from our hotel he found pear/peach flavored bottled water that he knew I'd like. So he bought it for me. I gave him the rochers and he gave me the waters, and all was good with the world. Those rochers remain one of our favorite things. The water only lasted a few years before the store stopped stocking it. To this day, neither of us can remember what we argued about.

I always thought chocolate tarts were difficult. Tart shells don't like me. Dorie's tart crust, supposedly easy to pat in the tart pan, only highlights my inability to do anything evenly. A while ago I saw Deb's post that she solved that problem by adding the whole egg, not just the yolk, to the dough. Eureka! This enabled me to roll out the tart shell and get the flat bottom and sharp sides I had been missing.

Look at those sharp sides and even bottom!

The star of the tart is the filling. Use your very best chocolate because that is where your flavor is coming from. I gradually heat the cream rather than cranking it up to high to avoid breakage. Stir the ganache from the center and slowly. I thought I'd get creative and make a swirl pattern in my tart so I let it set a little before attacking it with a palette knife. BIG MISTAKE. Some of the chocolate had started setting and my swirl made it look grainy. Panicked, I heat an offset spatula over the flame of a burner and reswirled the top until the chocolate had smoothed out.

This tart was a huge hit at work. It was cruel of me to take 3/4 of a 9 inch tart for 60 people, but I had to get it out of the house. Our host this week is the fabulous Jessica of bliss: towards a delicious life. I love reading Jessica's blog because she can write, unlike my stream-of-consciousness babbling. Thanks, Jessica, for bringing back a great memory and helping me overcome my tart shell demons.

If you'd like the recipe for this delectable tart, Jessica has it for you here. But really, you should buy the book everyone is talking about, Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I was a decent baker before I joined TWD, but the things I've made from this book in the last almost-two years have honed my skills considerably.

NOTE:  If you'd like to see the ethereal tarte noir from La Maison du Chocolat, stop over at Nancy's. She included a photo in her post.