Tarte aux Chocolat or chocolate tart is one of the classics of French Patisserie. With a crunchy tart crust and a smooth chocolate filling, this dessert is absolutely an amazing dessert for a special night!
Chocolate Tart is one of the most popular snacks or desserts in the world today.
Also known as chocolate cream pie, the chocolate tart, consists of eggs, dark chocolate, and cream, all mixed and beaten into a sweet pastry shell and refrigerated until it becomes firm.
The chocolate tart is similar to chocolate mousse in composition, except for its texture. French Chocolate tart has a firmer texture, and this is because it is baked.
History Of French Chocolate Tart
Before touching on the history of Tarte aux Chocolat, let’s look into the origin of tarts themselves.
The pastry form started in France, and this becomes evident when you understand that the French word “Tarte” which translates to pie, is the root word for tarts.
The process of making tarts originated from the medieval tradition of food layering.
It could also be attributed to the process of making pies at the time. Nonetheless, the first tart was made around 1550 and was associated with royalty and the affluent part of the society at the time.
It was the royal and noble version of pies that had existed 200 years earlier and is more popular with the commoners.
One of the distinguishing features of tarts at the time was the use of meat fillings in the tarts. As time went on, the use of custards and fruits as fillings also became rampant.
One of the earliest forms of tarts was the Italian Crostata which was also known as the Open Fruit Tart.
Chocolate tart became a popular snack as far back as the 18th century.
This was around the same time that the use of chocolate was gaining increasing popularity in European countries.
The industrialization of many countries was already underway, and chocolate was one of the items that saw immense production and mechanization at the time.
From chocolate drinks to chocolate bars and candies, there was a lot that could be done with chocolate. One of these possibilities was chocolate tarts.
One of the earliest recipes for the dessert was found in the cookbook of an Englishwoman, Hannah Glasse made in 1747.
The book, titled The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, used rice flour as the thickening agent and this affected the texture of the resulting tarts.
Other recipes and cookbooks that came out at the time also used wheat flour as the preferred thickening agent.
After some years, chocolate tart also found its way to America through the West Indies. This is due to the popularity of chocolate at the time. Chocolate tart existed as a major dessert and was also used to drink cocoa.
However, despite its popularity and rich history, the Chocolate tart was not a popular option in restaurants until recently.
This was due to the cost of procuring the ingredients and the difficulty of the preparation process.
It was not until 2016 that many upscale restaurants started including the dish into their menus and even at that, they existed in different variants and were considered gourmet desserts.
Ingredients Used for Tarte Aux Chocolat
Many important ingredients go into making the chocolate tart. However, the most important thing is the type of chocolate you use.
Although you can use chocolate chips as the base, however we recommend using dark, rich, chocolate powder to form the base of the tart, as well as all other ingredients are built around it.
Other important ingredients used to make the dish includes;
- Flour: Flour is the foundation for any baking, so it is expected that you need flour for the chocolate tart. The best type of flour for making chocolate tarts is all-purpose flour.
This type of flour is made from a blend of hard and soft wheat in an 80 to 20% ratio.
The flour is usually fortified with extra minerals and vitamins due to bran removal during its manufacture.
- Butter: Will help the ingredients stick firmly and hold together. The best type of butter you should use is unsalted butter.
This type of butter is perfect for pastry and baking, and this is because it provides solely the fat needed in the baking process.
Using salted butter and having to add salt to the pastry itself, could put the tarts over the edge of saltiness.
- For The Filling, Use Heavy Cream: The cream will help the chocolate tart taste light and creamy.
- Sugar: Seeing as the dark chocolate chips are usually bittersweet, the sugar will help bring out the sweetness from the chocolate.
Substitutions & Variations
Apart from the aforementioned ingredients, many interesting ingredients and additions can find their way into your chocolate tarts. They include the following;
- Almond and Buckwheat: These two ingredients can combine to make the chocolate almond and buckwheat tart.
- Berries and Cream
- Tomatoes for the Tomato Chevre Tart
- Cheese and Asparagus for the Asparagus and Goat Cheese Galette
- Strawberry for the Strawberry Lemonade Tart
- Almond Raspberry for the Almond Raspberry Crumb Tart
- Baked Apples for Brown Butter Apple Tart
How To Store Your Tart
As with many dishes, you can store the Chocolate Tarts by freezing or refrigerating. The duration of the storage determines which of the two options you use.
By refrigerating you can keep the chocolate tart intact and fresh for about one month. If you are looking to keep the snack fresh for more than one month, freezing remains the best option.
For each of these storage options, you are advised to wrap the chocolate tart in foil. You can equally thaw out the chocolate tarts after refrigerating or freezing.
To do this, you need to place the tart on the counter for 30 minutes before serving. If the tart is already in slices, you can microwave the individual slices at 5-second intervals until it gets warm.
How To Pair And Serving Suggestions
To best way you can enjoy your Tarte aux Chocolat with is Wine. The following are some of the best wines you can pair with the chocolate tart.
To learn more about how many ounces is in a bottle of wine, read here.
- Red Rasteau
- Sweet White Sauternes
- Red Rasteau Vin Doux Naturel
- Red Madiran
- Zinfandel also known as the Red Wine of California
- Sweet White Coteaux de Saumur
More Desserts To Enjoy
After you’ve enjoyed this rich tart recipe, we recommend you try one of these desserts next.
EASY FRENCH MOUSSE AU CHOCOLAT
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Chocolate Tart Recipe (Tarte aux Chocolat)
Equipment
- Pie Pan
- Saucepan
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- ½ Cup Icing Sugar (Powder Sugar)
- ½ Cup Cold Butter Cubes
- 1 Whole Egg
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 1 ½ Cup All-Purpose Flour Sifted
- ⅓ Cup Dark Cocoa Powder
For The Filling
- 1 Cup Dark Cocoa Powder
- 1 ½ Cup Heavy Cream Plus 4 Tbsp. More
- 2 Egg Yolks
- ½ Cup Granulated Sugar Plus 4 Tbsp.
- 2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Chocolate Tart Dough
- Preheat the oven for 350 Degrees. In a stand mixer, with using hook attachment, combine icing sugar and cubed butter. After mixing, add the eggs and combine it until firmly. Add sifted flour and cacao powder. Combine them very well, shape into a ball, and rest the dough for 20-25 minutes in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap.
- Next, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is 2 mm thickness. Chill the dough for 5 minutes. Then bake blind bake the dough 10 minutes. After 10 minutes are done, remove the baking weights and bake it again for more 10 minutes.
Chocolate Tart Filling
- For the filling, place the granulated sugar and egg yolks in a bowl to make Crème Anglaise.Over medium low heat, add the heavy cream to a medium size saucepan. Then add the whipped eggs inside. Cook the mixture for about 5 minutes while constantly stirring. Then add in the dark chocolate powder chocolate. Reduce the heat to low. Continue stirring until the chocolate and the heavy cream mixture is well incorporated.Cool the mixture down to room temperature.
- Pour the mixture into the cooked tart.Keep the tart inside the fridge for 6 hours or until firm. Serve the tart cold, recommended with red fruits. Enjoy!
Sunrita
That luscious chocolate is making my mouth water.your step by step recipe is very helpful. Thanks so much.
Mirlene
Thank you, Sunrita.
Andrea
Looks and sounds so smooth and creamy. A chocolate lovers dream come true! Yum!
Michele
Superb! Thank you for this recipe. I had been looking for a good recipe for this French Chocolate Tart and now I have found it. I will be making this again and again.
Mirlene
Thank you, Michele.
Kate
Such a gorgeous, indulgent dessert – any patisserie in Paris would be proud of this one!
Casey
SO SO decadent and delicious! And easy too! Everyone loved it!!!
Mirlene
Thank you, Casey!