Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Cream Tart

Oh, Chocolate Cream Tart, I wanted to love you. I thought I would love you. But I guess we're just not meant to be together.
See, usually I'm a big ole chocolate freak. I'm always adding extra ounces of chocolate to recipes, or sneaking in an extra layer of chocolate ganache, or stuffing my mouth with chocolate while making a nutritious dinner...ahem. But this tart was...can it be..I didn't even think this was possible...too chocolatey for me.
Something about the combination of not-very-sweet chocolate tart dough, and the SUPER INTENSELY CHOCOLATELY pastry cream (it's true, capital letters wouldn't lie) and then the barely sweetened whipped cream on top made it all too much for me. I didn't think it tasted bad, but I wasn't able to eat a whole slice of it.
It's funny--I love chocolate, but I never really like chocolate tart dough. I just think it's unnecessary! It's like, if you're going to make a dessert chocolate flavored, go ahead and use real chocolate instead of a dough with a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder. Quit pretending and man up. Even weirder, I actually really loved the taste of the unbaked dough (maybe a little too much, since I barely had enough to make the shell. *innocent whistling*) But once it was baked and composed with the other elements, it kind of lost me.
If I were to do this again, I would use a regular sweet tart dough, and fold in a little whipped cream to the chocolate pastry cream to lighten it a bit. And I would definitely sweetenen the cream on top a bit more. I can also see this being nice with another flavor element--maybe a drizzle of raspberry coulis, or the addition of a coconut cream layer, or topped with caramelized bananas, or studded with toasted hazelnuts for a Nutella vibe. SOMETHING. But as it was, it was too much of a good thing, which I didn't even think was possible when it came to chocolate.

My world, it is upended.

25 comments:

  1. It's gorgeous, love the presentation! I absolutely was in love with this tart as is! The chocolate dough was delish :) So creamy too! Even better after a day in the fridge MMMMMMMMM

    ReplyDelete
  2. AHHH! Chocolate overload? Say it isn't so!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't use bittersweet chocolate, and I also put in some hazelnut coffee creamer.

    It was fabulousl.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OH gorgeous photos. I must admit that this wasn't "too much" for me, but I can see how it could be. One of the variations I made was to mix the whipped cream and the pastry filling in a big swirly pile and that worked really well to cut the richness of the chocolate ... it wound up being H's favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW! Very elegant take on the chocolate tart, Liz!

    I simply love the last picture... Hummm... are you left handed??? (I often ask myself such stupid questions out of observation! LOL)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hear ya on chocolate overload - I also wasn't a big fan of the crust. Your presentation is beautiful though!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was afraid it would be chocolatey for me and used milk chocolate in the filling. I ended up not trying the whole thing anyways....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your tart is stunning! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi,
    This tart looks amazing! I am going to try it. I dont think it would be too much chocolatey for me! And the photos are amazing!! i can stare at them all day.. to bad i am at work...
    :)
    thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. TOO CHOCOLATY!!! WOW!! And from you, Elizabeth. WOW!! But it is a beautiful tart. I made minis and about 1/2 was all I could handle because it was sooooo rich. But not too chocolaty for me. It would be good with caramel, or bananas, or maybe a little amaretto flavoring.....

    Beautiful Tart.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Too chocolately? What a concept. I love how you made yours look gorgeous even though it wasn't your favorite thing ever. It was my favorite thing and even so I could barely wait to cut into it so mine looks all slumpy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, even if you didn't like it, I bet someone did. That is one very elegant and lovely tart! I need to take lessons from you on how to do chocolate shavings...I didn't have a clue! Great job...someeone must be very happy with this!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous3:01 PM

    Your tart looks wonderful. Too bad it was a little too much for you. I like your suggestions, though.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your tart looks gorgeous, picture perfect. I hear you on the tooo chocolatey, as a recent admirer of chocolate.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Toooo chocolatey? I never thought I'd hear those words out of your mouth. I consider myself to be on par with your love of chocolate, so now you have me wanting to try this tart just to see what "too chocolatey" tastes like. (Okay, I'm not going to lie. I also want to make the tart dough to eat it raw because you said it was so good :) )

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well, it sure looks beautiful! You said it all much better than I did, but I also didn't care for its extreme chocolaty-ness. I do want to make it again with alterations--definitely without the "chocolate" crust.
    Great post!
    How are you going to make the tiramisu sans coffe/alcohol?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow Liz! Yours is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Love or no love, it's lovely. Those chocolate curls are ridiculously enviable.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Christy9:00 AM

    I want to lick my computer screen. But I won't. It looks beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  20. It looks very pretty, though! And I love the idea of toasted hazelnuts or caramelized bananas.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Your tart looks fantastic! I can definitely see how it'd be too much chocolate with the chocolate tart shell and the chocolate pastry cream.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wow, just simply wow! I have been dreaming of chocolate cream pie for months now, but it is just too rich for the chicken littles in my house, so I have decided to live vicariously through your blog! Drool, lick screen, mmmmm. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Mmm chocolate shavings. I like the caramelized banana idea, too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Chocolates.. I do love chocolates.. Good job

    ReplyDelete
  25. Good ideas! I like the way you express your idea and the topic you choose. KEep on your sharing! I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete