My brother is in town and usually we tends to eat a lot whenever he visits. Not that he really came for a visit but he is here for work and spending the rest of the weekend here since tomorrow is a public holiday. (Diwali Day)
When he arrived on Monday evening, he was asking if I am baking my signature brownies for him. As I just had a wrist surgery last Thursday and still in the recovery mode, I thought its best to let my wrist rest. But inside y heart, I wanted to make something for him since he hardly visits. At the end, I gave up the idea of resting the wrist, so I decided to make something different instead of the usual brownies. I am trying out this new recipe, Tarte au Chocolat. Tried one good piece at Han' cafe and still can't seems to get over the thought of making one myself. So, I started googling to look for a similar recipe and found this one, but I am not someone who follows recipe exactly, I love to modify according to taste and whats available in my kitchen.
BIG MISTAKE!!! After I took out the tarte from the oven, did I realised, I didn't add sugar to the chocolate feeling!!! OH No!!!! Must be really bitter to taste. Yeah... I pinched the side a little and tested, proven. BITTER!!! Arghhh... I thought... damn... how would my brother eat those when he isn't someone who would appreciate really bitter chocolate??? Sighhh... I can't redo ( too wasted as I used 2 blocks of Hershey's good baking cocoa.) So I thought of making chocolate ganache and make it sweeter to compensate the bitterness of the tarte. Again, I modified the ganache ingredients, and not bad I would say as it was the ganache that saves the day.
I poured thhe ganache on the tarte and refrigerated for more than an hour but it just won't go harden. Still melty (remember I modified the ingredients???).. That explains the change of texture too. After dinner, we took out the tarte from the fridge and cut the into pieces.
Jac, my BFF, was here for dinner. So both of us were the guinea pig for the tarte and she was very encouraging, thought it was bitter to taste but she, loyally ate the bitter piece. Btw, she is my loyal fan of brownies.
Before you try out the recipe which I will add at the end of this post, the recipe calls for pastry as base but due to my wrist, I can't do the pastry and also can't seems to find a ready made in NTUC. Hence, I replaced with the base of my cheesecake, yes.... consist of sweet biscuits (I used digestive biscuits) and melted butter.
Here are the recipes:
For the pastry:
½ cup butter, cut in small pieces
1 ¼ cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Sift together flour sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives, leaving small peas sized pieces of butter throughout the mixture. Add egg and vanilla and mix together only enough to make a dough form. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for a half hour before rolling out
You can make your dough the previous day but make sure you take it out of the fridge for 10 minutes to warm slightly before rolling out.
Roll the dough into a 12 inch round and place in the bottom of a 10 inch tarte pan or pie plate. You will need to blind bake this crust for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F before adding the filling. Blind baking is essential so that the bottom crust will not get soggy.
To blind bake a crust, simply place a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil over the dough and cover the bottom of the pie plate with baking weights. (Marbles, dry beans, peas, rice or barley work just as well as anything else.)
For the chocolate filling:
7 ounces (by weight) dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
7 ounces whipping cream
3 ounces milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 large beaten egg
1/2 cup of sugar
Bring the cream and milk just to boiling and pour the hot liquid over the chopped chocolate. Let stand for 5 minutes and whisk together until smooth. Cool for about 10 minutes before whisking in the beaten egg and vanilla.
Pour into the blind baked shell and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The center can still be a little wobbly at this point. The surface should still be shiny. Cool thoroughly before cutting and serving. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings if desired.
For the chocolate filling:
7 ounces (by weight) dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
7 ounces whipping cream
3 ounces milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 large beaten egg
1/2 cup of sugar
Bring the cream and milk just to boiling and pour the hot liquid over the chopped chocolate and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes and whisk together until smooth. Cool for about 10 minutes before whisking in the beaten egg and vanilla.
Pour into the blind baked shell and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The center can still be a little wobbly at this point. The surface should still be shiny. Cool thoroughly before cutting and serving. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings if desired.
Happy Baking!!!
Sharon blowing her candle on the birthday brownie. Yeah, I guessed this must be her 1st time blowing candle on brownie instead of a cake. Hehehe...
Mom's specialty - Hainanese Chicken Chop
My homemade mushroom soup
My homemade mashed potato (recipe is available at the end of this post)
Caesar Salad with my homemade caesar dressing and homemade croutons
Mom's special sauce for the chops
The best part of all, my Triple Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Coated Honey Comb Biscuits and Chocolate Ganache topping. What else can you ask for with such ending....
