Chocolate Chiffon Tart

You know you're destined to make a certain chocolate chiffon tart, when the recipe and images keep popping up on your feed and your friends keep tagging you in on it.

Chocolate Chiffon Tart

barely adapted from here

For the Pastry:

125g unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering

80g caster sugar

150g plain flour, sifted

50g cocoa powder, sifted

For the Filling:

3 gelatin leaves (mine were Gold and the filling held like a charm)

120 dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped

80ml strong espresso coffee

3 eggs

80g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pretty edible flowers for decoration, optional

Make the Pastry:

Lightly butter a 23cm loose-bottomed fluted tart pan.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes until pale.  Stop the mixer and add the flour and cocoa. Turn the mixer onto low speed and mix until it resembles damp sand.

Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and press it evenly into the base and sides, making it as thin as you can.  Place in the refrigerator to chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Bake the pastry shell for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven.. If the pastry has slipped down the sides during baking, gently press it back up with your fingers. Leave to cool on a wire rack in the pan, until completely cool before filling.

Make the Filling:

Soak the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.

Put the chocolate and coffee into a heatproof bowl and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.  Don't let the bowl touch the water.  Stir until the chocolate has melted.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Reserve 2 tablespoons of the boiling water and discard the rest.  Squeeze the gelatin leaves and put them in the hot pan with the boiling water.  Swirl to mix and the gelatin will dissolve completely. Pour the gelatin mixture into the melted chocolate and coffee.  Mix thoroughly.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip with egg yolks with 40g of the sugar and the vanilla until pale and thick.

Add the chocolate mixture and whisk until completely blended through.  

Refrigerate for 10 15 minutes, whisking once or twice, until the mixture starts to thicken.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip with egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 40g of sugar and beat until thick and glossy. There should be no graininess when you rub some of the mixture between your thumb and finger.

Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until fully incorporated and pour it into the pastry shell.

Leave to set at room temperature (or in the refrigerator if your kitchen is hot). Strew with pretty edible flowers if you are luck enough to grow them in your garden or can get your hands on them at the market.