Tony Jackman's chocolate tart
Technology has its limitations, even in this webbed world of wifi and wii and apps for anything except the little things that really count. I mean, you can email me your CV, your virtual kisses, your letter of demand, or your promise that if I just send you a few of my personal details – date of birth, bank account number, sundry passwords – you will deposit 30 million euros into my account just because my name came up in your lucky draw.
But you can’t email me a chocolate. You can’t fax me a Toblerone. You can’t SMS me a mocha-cream centred truffle. You can send me an attachment of a picture of a chocolate and a note saying “Jane has sent you a chocolate!” but in fact what Jane has sent me is a thumbnail picture of a chocolate which is as much use to me as an email promising me 30 million smackers.
It’s not that I’m not impressed with technology and social networking – this is an extraordinary world we live in. But sometimes I think that the apps we are seeing now are just a scratching at the surface of possibiities. I can SMS you love, just as we did in the days of paper correspondence with a trio of kisses at the bottom of the page. But I can’t text you a spoonful of foie gras. I will be impressed with technology when I can be beamed to Paris for dinner somewhere in the Latin Quarter or a little place in a side-rue near Montmartre; when I can think I am on the old town square in Prague and suddenly be there. And if you could really email or text me a chocolate, I’d buy that app.
Chocolate is many things. It is mood elevating. It is soothing to the sore throat (containing theobromine, which is thought better than cough medicine). It has even been found to help prevent the decline of brain function as we get older. I must remember this when next I have one of those moments where you get up, wander off into another room, then wonder why you’ve gone there.
With your health in mind, therefore, I’ve been playing with chocolate in my kitchen. Here’s a duo of recipes sinfully laden with the richest dark chocolate of 85 percent-cocoa-solids strength. Just don’t eat it all yourself – it’s only in moderation (sadly) that chocolate has all of those healthy qualities.
It’s not that I don’t trust Heston Blumenthal or Gordon Ramsay, although I would’t work in the latter’s kitchen in a hurry. I’ve made Heston Blumenthal’s fabulous chocolate tart recipe before, and Ramsay’s is almost as good. But I wanted a tart that was even more chocolatey. Even creamier. And I can’t just follow recipes slavishly in my own column, so I broke out of the mould and devised my own recipe. The base: sift 125g cake flour with 20g cocoa powder and a generous pinch of salt. Beat 60g each of softened butter and caster sugar until creamy. Melt 30g dark chocolate in a stainless steel saucepan over a pot of simmering water. Mix the chocolate and an extra large egg into it. If this mixture is too runny, add sifted flour, a little at a time, until it resembles and has the consistency of a firm but pliable pastry. Round it into a flattened ball, cover with foil or clingfilm, and refrigerate for half an hour. Heat the oven to 190. Grease a deepish pie dish and place the pastry in the centre. Using your fingers, press it out to the sides and up the sides, evenly. Cover lightly with foil, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another five minutes. Remove to cool. If the centre has become convex, don’t worry, as it cools it will recede. Melt 300g dark chocolate. Spread a third of this evenly over the bottom of the tart base. Bring 500ml cream to a boil. Pour, stirring, into the remaining melted chocolate. Whisk two large eggs with 100g caster sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence or (as I did) hazelnut syrup, and whisk it into the chocolate cream. Pour this into the pastry case and bake in a 150 degree C oven for 50 minutes. Remove to cool thoroughly – the wobbly filling will set firmly as it cools. Only cut into slices once at room temperature or chilled. I prefer the latter.
Chocolate sorbet
Talking of chilled, try this amazingly easy but wickedly delicious chocolate sorbet recipe: In a saucepan, bring a cup of full cream milk to the boil with 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa powder, whisking. Watch it – it boils over before you can blink. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside while you melt 150g dark chocolate in a saucepan and whisk it into the chocolate milk. Chill in the fridge for an hour, then pour into a suitable metal container, cover with foil and freeze.
And no, Daisy, I don’t have one of those ice-cream makers, nor do I know how to use one. If you feel all that strongly about it, fax me one.
First published in The Good Weekend, Weekend Argus, January 2010
About tonyjackman
Tony Jackman writes about food, wine and restaurants, witty and irreverent newspaper columns on almost any subject, and also dabbles in playwrighting and painting in watercolours and pastels. He cooks up dinners, lunches, breakfasts, braais and brunches for his weekly food column, and is developing this site into an extensive resource of information about Western Cape restaurants.