Chocolate Strawberry Tart

Been fascinated with tart shells these days - pate Sucre or sweet pastry crust... yum!


Baking things whose batter require refrigeration has been a challenge for me in Jakarta. The hot and humid weather makes it really challenging to keep the dough chilled while working on it. Thank goodness for air conditioning that helps the process. :) I still find myself going back and forth to the fridge to re-chill the dough during my rolling process. This is part of my reason for my fear of attempting to make puff pastry dough :p

Since I was in the baking mood and had quite a bit of time, I decided that one fine afternoon to make chocolate strawberry tart. I used the recipe from my recently purchased book, the art and soul of baking, and I really like the hint of vanilla in the crust.

6 1/4oz all purpose flour

1 3/4oz granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4oz cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 large egg yolks

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1-3 tsp cold water

Using a food processor, put the flour, sugar, and salt into the bowl and pulse several times to combine. Add the cut butter and pulse again 6-8 times until the butter becomes pea-sized crumbles. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks and the vanilla and stir to combine. Slowly drizzle in the butter mixture while pulsing the food processor until the dough forms small clumps. Test the dough by pressing a handful of the dough - they should stick together. If the crumble and fall apart, add 1 tsp of water and pulse again. Repeat if necessary.

Turn the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to bring the dough together. Shape the dough into a disc and plastic wrap it before storing in the fridge.

Now I use a regular 1:1 ratio for the chocolate ganache and lined the tarts with my homemade strawberry jam before pouring in the ganache. :)

Itadakimas! (so the Japanese say)