Recipe: Perfect Tangy Chocolate Tart by Alison Roman

Recipe: Perfect Tangy Chocolate Tart by Alison Roman

30m prep | 20m cook

Last updated

Not a big chocolate fan when it comes to dessert? You may want to reconsider and try this beautifully balanced, simple chocolate tart recipe from Alison Roman's cookbook Sweet Enough.

Excerpt from Sweet Enough: "If you, like me, trend towards fruit and vanilla over chocolate, I feel confident you could still fall in love with this perfectly basic, straightforward, yet completely above average chocolate tart.  This one is easy to execute, flawless each and every time, doable by even those who have never so much as melted chocolate, let alone dared make a chocolate tart. If you scanned the ingredients and thought ‘milk chocolate? I’d never,’ then consider this my plea – my ask-on-hands-and-knees plea – to please trust me here and try it. I’m certain you’ll find it plenty chocolatey and even more well-balanced than your typical tart. Oh, and not that you would, but please don’t skimp on the salt."

This recipe is an edited extract from Sweet Enough: A Baking Book by Alison Roman, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography credit: Chris Bernabeo.

Ingredients (Makes one 23cm tart)

For the crust:

  • 110g plain flour
  • 30g unsweetened (Dutch) cocoa powder
  • 40g icing sugar
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
  • 115g unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

  • 225g bittersweet chocolate (68–80% cacao)
  • 115g milk chocolate
  • pinch of salt
  • 160g thick (double/heavy) cream
  • 110g honey
  • 220g sour cream
  • flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, icing sugar and kosher salt. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix until well combined; it’ll have a texture sort of like Play-Doh. Press this into the bottom and up the side of a 23cm (9in) tart tin with a removable base – or you can use a 23cm (9in) pie dish or springform tin. Use a measuring cup or your hands to flatten the crust and make sure it’s all packed and even.

Bake until the crust is completely cooked through and gone from dark brown and shiny to a lighter dark brown and matte, 15–20 minutes. It can be difficult to tell when this is done, because it’s already brown. Test by pressing the centre: it should be firm and opaque, not squishy or greasy-looking. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Make the filling: In a heatproof medium bowl, combine the dark and milk chocolates and kosher salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the thick cream and honey over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, remove from the heat (do not let it boil) and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute or two to melt the chocolate, then, using a spatula, mix until well blended and no pieces of chocolate remain. (You can whisk, but be cautious of air bubbles.)

Stir in the sour cream and mix until it looks thick, glossy and emulsified. Immediately pour the filling into the cooled crust and smooth the top. Sprinkle with flaky salt and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Do ahead: The crust can be made 3 days ahead, wrapped tightly, and stored at room temperature. The tart itself can be made 3 days ahead, wrapped tightly and refrigerated.

Products Used in This Recipe

Related Recipes

Latest Articles & Recipes