Chocolate Mint Tart

A great dessert for all you chocoholics out there, and the pastry is very 'user friendly' to work with :) This recipe originally comes courtesy of Bon Appetite!

Pastry

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large egg, beaten to blend

Filling

1 1/4 cups whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
20 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (yes that's not a typo!!!!)
1 3/4 teaspoons peppermint extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1. Butter 10 inch diameter tart pan with removable bottom.

2. For Pastry. Sift unbleached flour, powdered sugar, cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse sand. (I normally sift into a food processor and let the blade do the hard work for me)

3. In a large bowl add the egg and stir until moist clumps form. Gather it together with cold hands into a ball, flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic. Freeze it for 10 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 400F.

5. Roll out the dough on floured surface (though I normally roll between 2 sheets of plastic wrap!) to about a 13-14inch round. Transfer the dough into the prepared pan gently. Trim the overhang to about 1/2 inch and then fold that overhang in and press so you form double-thick sides. Freeze the crust for about 20 minutes until firm.

6. Line the crust with aluminium foil. Fill with dried beans or ceramic pie weights and bake until the sides have set, about 15 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350F. Remove the foil and beans and bake until the crust is golden brown - about another 20 minutes. You may need to put some foil over the sides to prevent burning. Cool crust completely.

7. For Filling. Combine the cream, butter and sugar in a heavy large saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a simmer. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and both extracts until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

8. Pour 1 cup of the filling into a small heavy saucepan and reserve covered on the kitchen counter for the glaze. Pour the remainder of the filling into a medium bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

9. Take the bowl of filing from the fridge and whisk for 2 minutes until the color lightens (if you do this by hand it will feel like a very long 2 minutes!!!). Spoon the whisked filling into the crust and smooth the best you can. Refrigerate until the filling is firm - about 30 minutes.

10. Stir the reserved filling in the small saucepan over a low heat until just lukewarm, about 2 minutes. Pour over the top of the filling as a glaze and swirl the tart around to evenly cover the top. Chill until the glaze sets, about 1 hour.

I normally put hersheys kisses around the edge to decorate!

You can make the tart up to 2 days before you serve it, if you cover it and keep it chilled.

To serve just push up the pan bottom to release.


Delicious!!!