Chocolate Tarts With Choco-caramel Swirls
Why I Love This Recipe
This is a recipe I adapted from the food blog Chocolate and Zucchini. Her recipe was a little rich for me so I changed it a little.
This is quite a lengthy recipe, and I won't pretend making these beautiful little tart-lets isn't a laborious process, but sometimes that's exactly what one wants on a rainy Saturday afternoon :)
Ingredients You'll Need
THE PASTRY
210g plain flour
30g good quality cocoa powder
120g caster sugar
120g butter
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp fine salt
THE GANACHE
142ml double cream
250g chocolate
2 egg yolks
50g butter
THE CHOCO-CARAMEL SWIRLS
100g sugar
2 tsp good quality cocoa powder
Sheet of greaseproof (wax) paper
Directions
Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt for the pastry. Add the butter in cubes straight from the fridge. Blend together with your fingers until combined and then add the milk and blend again. You should end up with a mixture very like course sand.
Squeeze some in your hand - if it clumps together, its ready. If not, add a little more milk and blend again until you get the clumping.
Pack the pastry into the tins with your fingers, and blind bake with some wax paper and baking beans/dried beans/uncooked rice at 200c (390f) for 10-15 minutes.
When the pastry shells have cooled, you can brush them with melted chocolate if you like, to 'glaze' them.
Bring the cream for the ganache to just about simmering point (do not let boil) and then take off the heat and whisk in the chocolate, egg yolks and butter until you're left with a rich, creamy gorgeous chocolate sauce.
Pour into the cooled pastry shells and level out a bit with a spatula or spoon.
Melt the sugar for the swirls in a small saucepan until completely caramelised.
Add the cocoa and mix into the caramel.
Working quickly, use a spoon to draw shapes on the greaseproof paper. Leave to cool and set.
Insert the swirls into the ganache and chill the tart-lets in the fridge until the ganache has set and they are ready to be eaten.