Raspberry Rose "Hidden" Chocolate Tart, and the National Food Bloggers Bake Sale!

These two weeks have been some of the busiest I've ever had in my life.  I'm not kidding.  It's sort of been one thing after another after another after another, my head is spinning so fast that I question whether or not I still have a spine, I've eaten all of two proper meals over the past ten days, and collectively over the past several days, I've probably gotten fewer hours of sleep than I can count on my fingers and toes.  But, it's not over yet!  Ah!  So, today I present you something from my archives taken a month or so ago, though I haven't gotten around to posting the recipe until now:  the raspberry rose "hidden" chocolate tart.

Now, by "hidden" chocolate, I mean that there's a soft, decadent layer of dark chocolate ganache hidden beneath all of that pastry cream and fruit.  It's the tart that you should eat when you don't want anyone to know that you're getting your daily chocolate fix.  :-)

While the pastry cream in this tart is just your good ol' pastry cream, the tart crust is actually where the interesting stuff is at, because it's filled with crushed dry rose buds and rose extract, letting out this amazing aroma of flowery goodness.  Then, I dare you to pile raspberries that have been tossed in warm raspberry-apricot jam as high as you possibly can on the tart!  Trust me, you won't regret this combination of rosy crust, bitterly dark chocolate, ultra-creamy filling, and tartly sweet delicate raspberries.  I wish I had one now.  Oh, that would just make life so much more bearable.  (Bonne maman has a great raspberry apricot jam that I used for this tart, if you can find it!)

Oh yeah, and then I suddenly ran out of raspberries when I realized I had piled too may on the big tart...  My bad!  But, blackberries in the same context taste just as good:

So! I wanted to tell everyone about how I'm going to end my crazy busy two weeks this weekend--with being part of the National Food Bloggers' Bake Sale in San Francisco!  That's right.  You've drooled over the pictures and recipes, and now those of you in the area can have a taste of the blog.

The bake sale is part of a big, national Great American Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength, which is dedicated to ending childhood hunger.  I'm so excited to be a part of this awesome event, so if you are in the area, please, please come out and help show your support, in addition to getting awesome baked goods:

Saturday, April 17, 2010

12-3 pm

Omnivore Books

3885 Cesar Chavez Street

San Francisco, CA 94131

I'll be making some of my special dark chocolate tarts, but I won't tell you ahead of time what flavors I'm making.  You'll just have to come to the bake sale to find out!  And, as extra icing on top of the cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum will be speaking at 3pm in Omnivore Books, so it's seriously like THE ultimate dessert afternoon.

I hope to see many of you on Saturday!  Also, as a heads-up, I'll be posting a super, super, SUPER special blog post coming up later this week that you will. not. want. to. miss.  So, stay tuned!  I've been working on this surprise for quite a while now, too.  *smiles smugly*


P.S. To all of you who have commented on my blog recently--Thank YOU!  I've been so busy that I've barely had time to keep up with email, let alone responding to the comments, so I'm sorry if you've asked a question or sent in a suggestion, and I have yet to respond.  I will--in due time!


Read on for recipe...


Raspberry Rose "Hidden" Chocolate Tart
makes one 9" tart

for pastry crust:
1 3/4 cups AP flour (~6 oz/260 grams)
7 Tbspn butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
3-4 Tbspn dried rose buds
1 Tbspn rose extract
1-2 Tbspn water

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and pulse just until a dough begins to form.
2. Remove the pastry dough from the food processor, form into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
4. Roll out the pastry crust. Prick the bottom of the crust several times with a fork. Then, line the pastry with parchment paper and weigh it down with pie weights (or dry beans, which is what I use).  If making tartelettes, just prick the bottom of the pastry without weighing them down.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the pastry looks golden.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool.

for "hidden" chocolate ganache filling:
3 oz. bittersweet or dark chocolate, finely chopped
2.5 oz. heavy cream
1/2 Tbspn butter
1/2 Tbspn Godiva chocolate liquor, optional

1. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, combine heavy cream and butter. Heat on medium high, stirring and scraping the bottom constantly until it reaches a gentle simmer.  Remove from heat.
3. Pour the hot cream onto the prepared chocolate. Let sit for 2-3 minutes.
4. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and evenly distributed.  Stir in the liquor, if using.
5. Immediately pour the chocolate into the bottom of the prepared tart crust and let cool.

for pastry cream:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 egg
3/4 cups sugar
2 Tbspn AP flour
1 tspn vanilla extract

1. Bring the milk to just a simmer.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar.  Whisk in the flour.
3. Using the simmering milk, temper the egg mixture by adding a little bit of the hot milk at a time, whisking constantly.
4. Return the milk and egg mixture to heat, stirring and scraping the bottom of the saucepan until the mixture thickens and can thickly coat the back of a spoon.
5. Immediately remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
6. Let cool.  Once cool, pour on top of the chocolate in the tart crust and smooth.  Refrigerate for at least an hour to let it set.

for assembly:
raspberries
raspberry-apricot jam (or, just apricot jam)

1. In a large saute pan, melt a few tablespoons of jam--how much you'll need will be proportional to how many raspberries you dare to pile on top of your tart.
2. Once the jam has melted, add the raspberries and gently! roll them around the pan so that they are evenly coated with melted jam.  Remove from heat immediately and pile away!



Enjoy!