Bitter Chocolate Truffle Torte.

Two weekends ago I made dinner for some work friends for a belated birthday celebration. I'm always using said friends as (fairly willing) guinea pigs for whatever new recipes that might have caught my eye, but since it was meant to be a nice dinner party and I wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally poison them or serve them slop, I turned to a trusted source that has always helped me deliver drool-worthy desserts to the dinner table; Not So Humble Pie. Everything of Ms Humble's that I've tried to make has always turned out pretty perfectly, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with one of her recipes.

I've been eyeing up her Fresh Mint Truffle Tart for a while now, but decided against following the recipe to a tee as I know that some people (crazy people) are not too keen on the mint-chocolate combination. Personally, I think these people are nuts, but I decided to omit the mint flavour from my torte and just make a really bitter, chocolatey version instead. The recipe I'll post here is very much Ms Humble's recipe, but with the few minor edits that I made.

I was lucky enough to have a good friend take these gorgeous photographs for me at dinner (how I regret not insisting that he was there to document the baking process!). Thank you, Jason! 

Crust:
60g icing sugar
130g plain flour
25g good quality cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
113g cold unsalted butter

Filling:
300g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), chopped
177g semi-sweet chocolate (minimum 56% cocoa solids), chopped
290g double cream
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

First, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease an 11" tart tin with a removable base, then place it into the freezer. This isn't always necessary, but it makes a difference when you're making proper pastry (especially delicate ones like shortcrust pastry), or if you live in a hot, humid country (like I do).

Next, whip out your trusty old food processor. I have to admit, one of the things that really made this recipe appeal to me was just how easy to make the crust sounded. How easy, you ask? Well, this easy...

Pop all the dry ingredients for your crust into your food processor and give them a good pulse. Cut your cold butter into small pieces and add them to the food processor. Blend the mixture until it forms a fine crumb that just holds together when pinched between your fingers.

Pour the crumbs into the tart tin you prepared earlier, and press them down until they are firmly packed into the tin. Bake the crust for 15 minutes, then leave to cool completely.

Start on your filling while waiting for the crust to cool.

Put your cream in a saucepan and bring it up to a simmer. Take it off the heat and let it cool down just a little bit; while waiting, start chopping your chocolate. Once chopped, add the chocolate, warm cream and the butter to a heatproof bowl or small saucepan, which should then be placed over another saucepan of simmering water (a makeshift double-boiler, basically). Make sure your bowl is over the water and not in, as you don't want it to get too hot.

Stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has emulsified into a smooth, glossy ganache. Pour the ganache into your cooled crust, then place the whole tin into the refrigerator to set (which should take a few hours).

I decorated it with a sprinkling of cocoa over the top and served it at room temperature with a good dollop of vanilla ice-cream. It went down a treat with my guests and was a rather decadent end to dinner. 

Thanks to the lovely Ms Humble for allowing me to blog the recipe. Hopefully I'll have an excuse to try it again...but with mint next time.