Off to a dear friend’s place for dinner tonight, so I begged her to let me bring dessert so that I could post a blog, and practice my photography! The tart has a chocolate pastry base filled with dark chocolate ganache and topped with juicy blackberries. The hazelnut praline gives a really nice crunch as a contrast to the soft textures. I am already planning on making another one and thinking of serving it with poached black doris plums.It has been a while since I posted this, but I keep seeing the pic re-pinned on Pinterest (yippee). Welcome to my blog From the Kitchen, and please feel free to check out my index page for lots more recipes or head to the home page for a good fossick around. I would love for you to come over and say ‘hi’ at my Facebook page or leave me a comment about what other recipes you would like to see! 🙂
Chocolate Filling:
700mls cream
700g dark chocolate, chopped
Pastry:
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup caster sugar
150g cold butter, chopped into cubes
2-3 Tbsp iced water
Hazelnut Praline:
11/2 cups hazelnuts
200g sugar
3 tablespoons water
To serve:
2 cups fresh blackberries
200ml cream, softly whipped
Chocolate Filling:
Heat cream in a microwave or pot until almost boiling. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. (It may need a tiny bit of extra gentle heating to melt fully). Cool for 15 minutes, then pour into pastry shell.
Pastry:
Whizz flour, cocoa, salt and sugar in a food processor. Drop in butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Slowly add iced water and pulse until mixture forms big clumps. Tip onto the bench and squish together. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour. Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Roll pastry out between two sheets of baking paper and line the base and sides of a 26cm tart tin. Pop in the freezer for 15 minutes. Cut out a circle of baking paper slightly bigger than the tart tin, and put in pastry case. Fill with baking beans or rice and cook for 12 minutes, remove baking paper and baking beans and cook a further 10 minutes. Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then pour in filling, and allow to set a little (for about 15 minutes) then refrigerate for at least six hours before serving. Top with blackberries and crumbled praline and serve with whipped cream and extra berries – and good quality vanilla bean ice cream!
Hazelnut Praline:
Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F) and put hazelnuts on a baking tray. Put a square of baking paper on a dinner plate ready for praline. Bake hazelnuts for 10 minutes until fragrant and colored. Remove from the oven and rub the hazelnuts between a folded tea-towel to remove the bitter skins (as much as possible). Heat the sugar and water together in a medium size, heavy based saucepan. Cook over medium heat without stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and caramelised, turning a rich golden colour. The amount of time varies but can be more than 5 minutes. Keep an eagle eye on the caramel so that you don’t miss the magical point between golden and rich, and black and bitter. As soon as you have a golden amber liquid tip in the hazelnuts and coat in caramel. Quickly pour onto the baking paper and leave to set. Caution: do not put your fingers any where near the caramel, it is viciously hot! Once praline is cold you can whizz it in a blender or smash it into chunks with the end of a rolling pin – up to you whether you like your praline chunky or fine!
What a lovely tart!! The chocolate looks so glossy and rich!! Wonderful photos and very tempted to try this recipe immediately!
Hi Trisha – I hope you do try it – it's super-easy! If you do, let me know how you get on 🙂
This is sexy as hell! wow.. just freakin amazing! Gotta make this soon, who knew food could turn you on! ha ha!
Apparently, you have not heard of the cookbook Intercourses.
Hi Jennifer – haha – so glad you like it! Let me know what you think once you've made it 🙂
May I ask…What kind of cream?
Hi Lni – it is regular pouring cream, not thickened 🙂
I JUST picked out first blackberries of the season – I may just have to try this!
Calories??
I fear there are many calories…but I always think everything in moderation – and because it is rich, you only need a small slice to fell satisfied! 🙂
Yay Jill Frank – I hope you do 🙂 Let me know how you like it!
I say I'm not pinning any more recipes for sweets on Pinterest, but this one had me a dark chocolate. This will be my next recipe to try.
Hi – yay, I'm glad you like the look of it – I'd love to know what you think if you try it! 🙂
Hi. Looks amazing! Does the tart set like a cheesecake or is it runny/ oozy? Cheers. Nate in NZ
Hi Nate – it sets up firm like a chocolate truffle, but is best kept away from direct sunlight or heat. Hope you give it a try! 🙂
Are you suppose to pour the chocolate filling in while the pastry is still hot from coming right out of the oven? Also–I am trying to convert these measurements so I am hoping they don't change too much and make it turn out incorrect! Fingers crossed!
Excellent question! I leave the pastry to cool for 15 minutes before pouring the filling in, then let it cool like that for another 15 minutes before very slowly and carefully putting it in the fridge. The conversions should work out OK for you – good luck – let me know how you get on! All the best 🙂
Thank you very much! I will be making this later today! Pretty excited to taste it.
Just wanted to let you know, it turned out perfectly! SOOO good! Thank you for the recipe!
Yayyyyyy! I couldn't ask for more than that, I am so pleased! 🙂
I'm gonna make this tonight for my mom's bday tomorrow! She loves chocolate, so she'll be very very happy (I hope) Thanks for the recipe!
Happy Birthday to your Mom – I hope she enjoys it! 🙂
Trying this right now, little worried since the filling is very liquidy. I really hope it sets, won't have time to make something else in morning party taking it to.
Hi there! The filling is usually very liquify, but should firm up to a good cutting consistency – how did you get on? Hope the party goes well 🙂
It turned out great! I was worried for nothing, just takes long time to set & was so liquefy. In the morn it was beautiful & perfect thanks!!
Yay – glad it worked out well for you! Thanks so much for letting me know, and apologies for the late reply! 🙂
I hope you don't mind my commenting with these conversions. Just for my use when I make this. Looks awesome!
10.58 tablespoons of butter
2.95 cups of cream
24.7 oz of chocolate
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of whipping cream (for the whipped cream topping)
Of course no problem Tami – and my apologies for the late reply. Thanks!!! 🙂
Can you put the praline on while its in the fridge so its just ready to serve? I am making right now for Thanksgiving tomorrow and trying to get as much done ahead. thanks : ) Also did you use all purpose flour?
Hi – no – I wouldn't put the praline on while it's in the fridge – that fridge-moisture does funny things to hard sugar, so best to sprinkle it on just before serving – don't put the blackberries on either, as they will 'bleed' into the chocolate. Just have them all set to go in containers, then it will only take 1 minute to sprinkle them on top. The flour is all-purpose. Hope all goes well and you have a fabulous Thanksgiving!!! 🙂
Hello – hoping to make this tonight! Just wondering, are you using unsweetened baking chocolate, or sweetened? It seems like it would lack a bit of sugar in the filling maybe. But I could be wrong! Thanks.
Hi Jackie – I use regular dark chocolate, usually about 50% cocoa solids – so not sweetened baking chocolate. I like a dark, rich chocolate flavour not overly sweet, and that is what I would recommend – if you like it a little bit sweeter I would probably do half and half with sweetened chocolate.
what type of cream is in the filling?
Hi, in New Zealand it is just regular cream, so pouring cream I think you would call it (from the US?). To get a really nice consistency you could try 50/50 pouring and whipping cream 🙂
I'm a bit confused. I'm I not using heavy whipping cream in with the dark chocolate? Am I to use coffee cream?
Hi Lacey, I have been asked this question before from the US – I wrote this in New Zealand where we only have one kind of cream regularly used in baking – no heavy whipping or coffee cream. I believe your heavy whipping cream should work perfectly. 🙂
If you don't mind my butting in, I'm an Aussie in the US and I think whipping cream or heavy whipping cream is the equivalents in the states. Heavy whipping cream has a higher fat content (similar to double cream) so I tend to using whipping cream for recipes that call for "cream".
Anyway, I pinned this recipe yonks ago and found it on a pinterest clean up. So glad I did. I took it to a dinner party tonight and it was a huge hit. I skipped the praline because the host was allergic to nuts but the blackberries, chocolate and vanilla ice cream were a magical combo!
My only issue was I found the pastry quite elastic and difficult to roll thinly. On cooking it also wasn't as short as I would like. Is that the addition of the cocoa or something different?
Hi – so sorry for the late reply, I just saw your message in my email pile! Thanks so much for your feedback, and I'm really interested in your comments about the pastry – thank you! I think the issue with the pastry is probably because it doesn't contain egg yolk, which a lot of short pastries do, which results in a slightly crisper result along with the butter content. I hope it didn't disappoint, but if you are looking for a different result, if you make it again, perhaps swap 1 tbsp iced water with 1 egg yold. Next time I make it I'll do it too, and we can compare notes! 🙂
beautiful torte! Does it need to be refrigerated to set? If I make it the day before, how do I store it?
Hi Didi – it doesn't have to be refrigerated to set, depending on the temperature of the room it will set up in about three hours. If you make it the day before I would store it (if not in the fridge) in a cool spot – for me I would pop it in the garage. Don't cover it with plastic wrap, it would stick to the surface, and don't put the berries on until just before serving. 🙂
Wow this is gorgeous! Looks amazing!
Thanks so much Eden! 🙂
Who cares about calories?! This looks to amazing and i wanna eat all of it 😀
Enjoy! 🙂
I'm mixing this up a bit – I threw a dash of ginger in the cream because I love dark chocolate and ginger and instead of hazelnuts I'm using pistachios … hoping it tastes yum!
Sounds delicious!!! 🙂