Dark chocolate tarte

Photo taken by Brian Defehr

                                                   Portion: 8

Ingredients:

Sweet pastry:
90 g (3 oz.) icing sugar 

30 g (1 oz.) ground almond 

125 g (4.5 oz.) soft butter 

1 egg 

250 g (9 oz.) all-purpose flour

Chocolate ganache:
20 cl (4/5 C.) heavy cream) 

170 g (6 oz.) dark chocolate 60% 

I egg 

60 g (2 oz.) butter

Procedure:

          For the sweet pastry: 

• Mix well with fork: the sugar, ground almond, and soft butter in large bowl. Incorporate 1 whole egg, mixing well.
• Then add 5 oz. all purpose flour, 3/4 of it with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula, then the last 1/4 of the flour mixed in with your fingertips, without kneading. 
• Continue to sprinkle in more flour if necessary till dough no longer sticks to bowl and fingers.
• Don't work the dough like bread kneading, just squash it if necessary to incorporate all the flour. Once you have a smooth, homogenous ball, not sticking, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1-2 hours. 
• Remove dough from fridge, allow to warm 5 minutes if cold and stiff. Butter and dust 8 tartlet pans with sugar. Either roll out dough flat and cut out circles large enough to fit perfectly in your pans, or roll dough into cylinder, and cut into 8 or 9 portions, about 45g / 1.6 oz each. 
• Dust each slice of dough with flour only if sticky and press into tart pans evenly, with thumbs. Prick all around base of pan with fork to prevent dough from ballooning while cooking. 
• Bake at 400 F/200 C about 10-12 minutes, until just lightly browning, remove and cool 5 minutes before adding the chocolate filling.
  
  
  For the chocolate filling:
• Melt the chocolate and butter together over steam in a double boiler, stirring to blend.
• Bring cream to a simmer, beat egg in a separate bowl and slowly pour cream into beaten egg while whisking. 
• Strain if you see any solid egg bits, and mix well with chocolate, then pour into prebaked tart shells, and bake at 150 C/300 F about 15 minutes, just to set. 
• Cool 2 hours before eating, and if storing in fridge, warm to room temperature before eating. 
• For an alternative with less risk of salmonella from undercooked eggs, replace the egg with 2 yolks and cook with 1⁄4 C. heavy cream as for sabayon till thick, before adding to the chocolate and baking. 
• Optionally top with fresh raspberries and dust with icing sugar, or with caramelized walnuts.