Chocolate Cherry Tart with Chocolate Pâte Sablée

The first step to any good tart, or pie for that matter, is choosing the right crust. Do you want something flakey or crumbly, coarse or fine, sweet or savory? Of course, there’s no need to get stuck in binaries - let that freak flag fly, baby. However, it helps to have a rough idea as to what you’re striving for, or at the very least, the crust’s objective. If you need something that’ll hold up heavy fillings and toppings, a fine “sablée” crust will crumble faster than a teenage dream. If you’re making a quiche, you’re better off with a savory crust, rather than a crust that is “sucrée”.

Today, we decided the best crust for a decadent chocolate cherry tart is pâte sablée. And we even threw in some cocoa powder for that extra chocolatey bang for your buck. Eat your heart out, Augustus Gloop.

Pâte sablée is a classical French tart crust closely related to shortbread. Similar to pâte sucrée, the dough is made by creaming butter and sugar together. However, pâte sablée is less sweet than its counterpart, and is made with powdered sugar rather than granulated white sugar. What makes pâte sablée standout is the almond flour, which lends to a finer textured crumb, and a more tender final product.

Handling an almond flour enriched dough for the first time is, admittedly, can be an act of courage. However, we can assure you, it’s worth the superior flavor and texture. And besides, any cracking or mishandling can be easily fixed.

One of pâte sablée’s best attributes is its versatility. You don’t need to develop any gluten – in fact, you don’t want to – hence the long resting times between handling the dough. So, feel free to experiment with flavors and flours. A dash of extract, zest, freeze-dried fruit or vegetable powders, varying nut flours, spices or herb – the world is your oyster.

The key to a good pâte sablée is balancing its texture and flavor with the star of the show: the filling. And what better compliments toasty almonds than dark chocolate and freshly pitted cherries? If you’re feeling particularly “cheffy”, whip up a small batch of meringue, then show off your pyrotechnical skills. Dinner and a show? Sounds like someone just strapped on their fancy pants. The ones with houndstooth, of course.

Chocolate Cherry Tart with Chocolate Pâte Sablée

Tarts have a bad reputation for being pie’s bourgeoisie cousin. And while this chocolate tart is certainly rich enough to be a part of the ruling class, it’s much easier to assemble than you’d imagine.

Recipe and photography by Connor Frenck

Forge To Table Knives

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 12 slices (1, 9” tart)

Ingredients:

Chocolate Pâte Sablée:

• 114g butter, soft

• 80g powdered sugar

• 2g salt

• 15g yolk (1 large yolk)

• 5g vanilla extract

• 80g almond flour

• 28g cocoa, Dutch process, sifted

• 120g cake flour

Chocolate Ganache Filling

• 450g dark chocolate (62-72%)

• 360g heavy cream

• 85g unsalted butter

• 68g brown sugar

• 8g vanilla extract

• Pinch of kosher salt

Fresh Cherries

• 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted

Toasted Meringue (optional)

• 114g egg whites

• 170g granulated sugar

• 1g kosher salt

• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

1. (START DOUGH) In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle so the butter mixture is evenly creamed. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract to the mixer and cream until the mixture is homogeneous.

2. (ADD FLOUR) Add the almond flour and cocoa powder and cream, making sure there are no clumps. (Since there isn’t any gluten in the mixer yet, don’t worry about overmixing.) On low speed, add the cake flour until there aren’t any streaks of flour. The dough won’t look like one cohesive ball yet. Remove the dough from the mixer, and using your hand, smush together the soft dough into a rugged mass.

3. (SHAPE AND REST) Place the dough ball on a long piece of plastic wrap and loosely wrap the dough. With your hands, try to form the dough, as evenly as possible, into a flat disk about 5”- 6” in diameter. It helps if you have a small cake pan or a circular ramekin that you can press the dough into. Once the dough is firmly pressed into a cohesive disk, wrap it again, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

4. (ROLL OUT DOUGH) After its first rest, let the dough warm up for about 15 minutes to prevent cracking, then heavily flour a clean working surface. Using as much flour as you need, roll the dough into an 11” circle. It helps to turn the dough one quarter after every roll to ensure the dough is rolled out evenly without sticking to the work surface.

5. (SHAPE IN TART PAN) Using your floured rolling pin, carefully roll up the dough and gently place it into your 9” tart pan. Because the crust is very tender, it’s likely to crack, but don’t worry, you can seam together any cracks and patch up missing spots with leftover dough.

6. (TRIM AND REST) Gently push the dough into the sides of the tart pan, then with your Forge To Table paring knife, trim any excess dough off the top of the tart pan. Rest the dough for another 2 hours in the refrigerator.

7. (PREPARE FOR BLIND BAKE) Preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Dock the bottom of the dough with a fork, then lay a piece of parchment on top of the dough and fill evenly with pie weights, (beans, rice, or even white sugar) making sure the sides of the tart are weighted too.

8. (BLIND BAKE) Bake the crust in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Check to see if the bottom of the dough has baked enough by gently pulling back the parchment. If the dough starts to pull off, bake for another 5-10 minutes.

9. (FINISH BAKING) Reduce the oven temperature to 325F degrees, remove the pie weights and parchment, and return the crust to the oven for about 10 more minutes until the bottom of the crust is fully baked through, but not burnt. The crust will continue to set as it cools. Once fully cooled, remove the crust from the pan.

10. (CHOCOLATE GANACHE) While the tart crust cools, chop the dark chocolate and set aside in a medium sized bowl. In a small saucepot, combine heavy cream, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and whisk until the ganache is smooth. Add a pinch of salt and taste to see if it needs any more.

11. (FILL TART) When the ganache is still warm but not hot, pour it into your cooked tart crust. If the ganache is not even, use an offset spatula to spread it out.

12. (MERINGUE) To prepare (optional) meringue, combine egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar in a bowl over a pot of boiling water (double boiler). Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 175F degrees, before moving to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip the hot mixture until stiff peaks. Reserve.

13. (ASSEMBLY) To assemble your tart, use a cherry pitter or a sturdy reusable straw to poke out the cherry pits. Then cut them in half with your Forge To Table Paring Knife. Place the cherry halves onto half of the set ganache. Brush the cherries with simple syrup or honey for a glaze (optional).

14. (MERINGUE TORCHING/FINISHING) Using a large round piping tip, pipe conjoined circles, varying in size, that slightly overlap the cherries. With a small, circular measuring spoon, scoop out the center of the circles. Lastly, to create the ring effect, blowtorch only the center of the holes. Enjoy your work of art!

Chefs Notes

• If you’d rather not make meringue, freshly whipped cream with a little vanilla and a dollop of yogurt, labneh, or sour cream adds a lovely tang that’ll balance out the rich chocolate ganache.

• The tart is best eaten when the ganache is at room temperature.