How to make the perfect chocolate tart
Sunday Life journalist and cook, Kate Gibbs, talks through how to create the perfect chocolate tart.
The perfect wine
A silky burst of rich fruit is the calling card of fortified wine
FORTIFIED WINES
Chocolate tart and Italian coffee ice-cream. Photo: Katie Quinn Davies
Sommelier Laiana Ryan
There is no better way to welcome the cold weather than with a rich, lusciously addictive fortified wine. It can be dessert in itself, but combined with the dark-red fruits of high-cacao chocolate the experience is mouth-watering.
NV Pennyweight Muscat – Beechworth,Vic ($38)
This family-run winery has a deep respect for fortifieds and biodynamics. Scents of dark chocolate, prunes and freshly roasted coffee beans dominate.
2004 Bodegas Robles Pedro Ximenez – Cordoba, Spain ($35)
The process of drying grapes in the hot Montilla sun produces a concentrated sweetness unlike any other. Sun-kissed fruit and dried figs make this a seductive dessert wine. Serve cool.
2005 Tscharke “Lumberjack” Touriga Nacional – Barossa Valley, SA ($30)
David Tscharke is a leader in alternative varietals and this vintage port is ripe with aniseed, spice and macerated raspberries.
The perfect tart
Chocolate tart
Rich chocolate in a most decadent form, light and oozing on a biscuit pastry base.
450g sweet shortcrust pastry
150g dark chocolate
120g unsalted butter
5 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
½ cup plain flour, sifted
Blind-bake shortcrust pastry in a 23cm diameter round tin according to packet instructions. Adjust oven to 180˚C. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl over saucepan of simmering water, stir gently until melted. Set aside. Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl over saucepan of simmering water and whisk until thick, about 10 minutes. Ribbons should form when whisk is lifted. Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture, then whisk in flour. Pour mixture into tart case and bake for 15-20 minutes, until just set and still wobbly. Serve at room temperature with coffee ice-cream (see below). Serves 8-10.
Italian coffee ice-cream
Spoonfuls of velvety, melting coffee will wrap up the feast in style.
Whisk 6 egg yolks and 3 cups cream in a heat-proof bowl. Add ¾ cup roasted coffee beans and place over saucepan of simmering water for 10 minutes, stirring until thick enough to coat back of a spoon. Remove from heat, add 1 cup caster sugar, stir until dissolved. Cover, refrigerate for 2-3 hours to infuse. Turn freezer to coldest setting. Strain custard into 10cm x 20cm loaf tin, cover and partially freeze. Transfer to bowl, beat well, then return to loaf tin and freeze overnight. Makes about 1 litre.
The perfect music
Ethereal and boppy in one, with a twinkling Australian accent - Holly Throsby's fifth album, Team.
From: Sunday Life
