TARTE AU CHOCOLAT – Jacques Genin’s famous simple chocolate tart: The recipe
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| (Can’t stop eating it (photo: Sharon Heinrich |
The monsieur strains the hot cream into the silver bowl holding the chocolate. He waits a bit, letting the chocolate begin to soften into the cream before he sticks the spatula into the middle. With gentle circular movements and without pulling the spatula out, he mixes the chocolate. He does this slowly and gently, taking care not to let air bubbles get mixed into the ganache. His eyes don’t budge from the cream, which is gradually turning darker and darker with each movement of the spatula. After a few minutes of persistent stirring, the rich brown color takes over, and the bowl’s contents transform into smooth and glossy ganache.
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This ganache is, in fact, the filling of Jacques Genin’s famous chocolate tart, which is representative of Genin’s pastry-making philosophy and practice. Not one for decorations, food coloring, or innovative techniques, he takes classics to the extreme, turning them into exquisite delicacies. Despite its simplicity, his chocolate tart is his greatest. It’s made up of superb flaky dough and rich chocolate ganache—no additives or extra layers or textures besides the delicate crackle of the golden pastry and the dense, soft layer of the dark chocolate ganache on top.
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| (So simple and so good (photo: Sharon Heinrich |
Jacques Genin’s Tarte au Chocolat
Makes 2 rings (20 cm in diameter, 2-3 cm high)
Ingredients 
Pastry Dough:
25 grams almond meal
100 grams confectioner’s sugar
2 grams salt
250 grams flour
140 grams cold butter, cubed
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
Dark Chocolate Ganache:
440 grams heavy whipping cream
400 grams dark chocolate (66% cocoa; Genin uses Valrhona’s
Caraibe)
Caraibe)
Preparation
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, salt, and flour.
2. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed, then add the butter and mix until it resembles coarse meal (sablage). You also can do this in a food processor or by hand, crumbling the butter into the flour
mixture until coarse and sandy in texture.
mixture until coarse and sandy in texture.
3. Switch to the dough hook and add the egg. Mix until the ingredients come together into a ball of dough. Remove from the mixer bowl and knead briefly on your work surface until well combined.
4. Lightly sprinkle the top and bottom of the ball of dough with flour (be sure to flour both sides!), put it between two sheets of parchment paper, and lightly flatten it into a disk (don’t roll it out completely). Transfer the dough, with the paper, to the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour.
5. Remove from the fridge, and roll out the dough to a thickness of 2 mm.
6. Line the rings with the dough, making sure that the sides are fully filled in and straight so that they don’t collapse during baking. Using a knife, gently trim the overhanging edges.
7. Freeze the dough-lined rings for about half an hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and place the dough-lined rings on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
9. Bake for 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and using folded paper towels or a clean dishtowel, remove the air bubbles that formed on the crust’s base by pushing the dough down. Return to the oven for another 3 minutes. Take out andremove the ring molds. Place the crusts on a rack and bake for another 5 minutes, until golden-brown and no longer pale at all. This last step is very important as it allows the pastry to acquire that golden color Genin loves so much.
10. Remove the baked crusts from the oven and cool on a rack.
11. Put the chocolate in a large bowl.
12. In a medium pot, heat the cream until almost boiling. Remove from heat and strain the cream into the bowl with the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes before stirring.
13. Using a spatula, slowly and gently begin to stir together the chocolate and cream. Keep the spatula in the center of the bowl, touching the bottom, without lifting it out, so that air bubbles aren’t incorporated in. You should be stirring slowly and carefully for a few minutes, until you have a glossy ganache with no air bubbles.
14. Pour the ganache into the crusts, almost to the top of the edges. Cool to room temperature, and serve that same day. The tarts can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days, but they’re best when fresh.
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| (So are you going to bake it? (photo: Sharon Heinrich |
BON APPETIT!
Sharon
Alicia Hardville
I could watch your videos of delicious, delectable creations all day !! I’m definitely going to attempt to make this rich and beautiful tart 😍
Thank you for sharing the recipe .
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey dear, thank you! So happy to read your words 🙂
לירון
היי שרון, תודה על המתכון!
אם הבנתי נכון המתכון לא דורש אפייה עיוורת של הבצק. איך מתקבלים שוליים כאלה גבוהים ?
Paris Chez Sharon
הי לירון, נכון מאוד 🙂 ז’נה לא אופה אפייה עיוורת אלא מטפל בבצק בצורה כזו שהוא לא אמור לנחות. כמובן שאם יש לך חשש אין כל בעיה לעשות אפייה עיוורת, הרי בסופו של דבר גנאש השוקולד יכסה את הטארט. הכי חשוב, לאפות את הטארט כמו שצריך מבחינת השחמה ולכן גם אם את עושה אפייה עיוורות יש לאפות אותו לאחר מכן עוד מספיק זמן כך שיראה שחום שחום.
Sudha chary
Any substitute for egg please
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey 🙂 I didn’t try it without egg, but try in vegan sites, they give some solutions.
Noah
Strictly speaking, a dough like this doesn’t *need* egg. The egg helps the dough to be more supple and less crumbly when rolling out, helps it to have a deeper golden-brown color and to be a little more crunchy — to have more of a bite — when it’s baked, and helps to prevent the baked tart shell from absorbing moisture out of the air or from a filling after the pastry has been made, extending the shelf life. Theoretically, a few tablespoons of cold water could be used instead of the egg, a la an American pie dough.
Paris Chez Sharon
Thanks 🙂
Alexa
Hello! This looks incredible! If I want to make only one tart (9 inch) and should divide the ingredients in half, what do you suggest for the egg? Use one smaller egg? Thank you!
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey, Just weigh an egg (without the shell) and put half of it’s weight.
Viet Anh
This looks delicious. Thank you for sharing. Can I freeze half the dough if I only wish to make one tart? How long will it keep if so?
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey 🙂 just make half of the recipe…
Adrien Food In Paris
Hi Sharon, do you recommend any specific kind of flour for this dough ? I would love to hear your advice, thanks in advance !
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey, not something specific 🙂
Angie
Would 72% dark chocolate work in this recipe?
Paris Chez Sharon
Sure!
Veronica
Hello,
I do not have an electric mixer at all and I especially don’t have a stand mixer. I see that the butter can be mixed by hand. Will it suffice to mix the egg in by hand as well?
Thank you
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey, you can do it by hand, sure!
Bcostello
Made this today for my gcse food practise, I slightly altered the recipe by reducing it and it turned it amazing would 100% recommend
Thank you!
Paris Chez Sharon
Thank you!!
Nabila kaci
Simple and delicieuse tarte thank you chef
Paris Chez Sharon
Thanks:-)
Aniqa Arif
Amazing tart chef!
Paris Chez Sharon
Thanks!
Melissa Flesch
How would I convert this for one 11 inch tart?
Thanks!
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey 🙂 I think you have calculator in google. Anyway, 11inch for tart it’s too much big.
Lauren
Hello! So excited to make this tomorrow. One quick question: is it 440 GRAMS cream or 440 ML? I believe cream is not 1g = 1L like water so wanted to double check. I have a scale so can weigh the cream. תודה!
Paris Chez Sharon
The same 🙂
Lauren
It was INCREDIBLE!!!!! My family thought it was from a patisserie. I did a sablé crust because of nut allergies in the family and it was beautiful together. Thanks again 🙂
Paris Chez Sharon
Great to read you!
Aaro
I made it with a fluted tart tin and it looked amazing. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Paris Chez Sharon
Great! Thanks 🙂
Corentin
Hey, thanks for the recipe !
I face a problem, and not sure where it comes from. I heated the heavy cream (30% fat) in microwave, and mixed it, but there were a lot of liquid fat not mixing and staying out of the mix. This ended up in a less creamy result, little bit rough, and some fat above the chocolate, once poured on the dough.
Do you know why this have happened ? I guess its either my cream itself, my cool down time witch was too long (easily over 2min) or maybe I heated it too much?
Thanks if you got 5 min to help me !
Paris Chez Sharon
It seems like the cream wasn’t good 🙂
Jo
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I would like to make one 20cm tart but I don’t have tart rings.
1. Can the dough crust be made in a small cake tin?
2. After the ganache fills the tart, do I leave it to set at room temperature?
Will make early in morning . Will it set by evening for the party?
3. Can the dough crust be made the day before?
Thanks
Paris Chez Sharon
Hello
1. no
2. yes if it’s not too hot
3. yes
Good luck!
Jo
Thanks for your reply.
I made this full recipe in a 24cm (9.5 inch quiche/tart tin with removable base).
The crust was perfect made the night before and the 70% chocolate (from supermarket- Plaistowe brand) with the cream for the ganache was delectable, heavenly. I made the ganache early next morning .
Everybody loved it!!!!
In all a beautiful creation. My son put some sea salt flakes on tart just before serving and it was great!
Thank you again.
Paris Chez Sharon
Amazing!!! So happy to read 🙂