Backpost: Today I had the lovely company of my friend Saloni who is far more versed in baking than I. Being the French-loving people we are, in searching about for recipes, I suggested she check out Tartelette (brilliant blog, one of two that convinced me I had to start one myself), from whose collection she narrowed it down to a possible 3. We decided on the chocolate truffle tarte (despite my terrible white chocolate truffle cake attempt this summer… it somehow became cookie-dough ice cream. (It’s best not to ask questions))
Due to Tartelette’s recipes being gluten-free, it called for some rather interesting flours- which, had we not blindly followed it, may have yielded a better crust (it was, prior to baking, very sticky and broke so often that I eventually balled it and pushed it out once inside the tarte pan, after consulting with Saloni on this). The recipe called for coffee, which we went without- as we used bittersweet chocolate, it had enough bitterness as it was!- and was originally meant for small tartelettes, whereas we made one large one (the tartellete tins my mother gave me are 3 inchers, and as the recipe called for 4 inchers, Saloni was skeptical and suggested the larger tarte).
The result was a very, very- did I say very?- rich, thick (it really reminded me of my mother’s chocolate mousse, thick and bittersweet) tarte with an enjoyable crust (when we first baked the crust, Saloni tried a piece, exclaimed that it had the taste and texture of sand, and needless to say, we were rather worried) that interacts nicely with the filling. And there’s a neat distinction between the two chocolates- the truffle filling and the ganache topping.
Some things we learned in the process of this one:
- If you see odd or eclectic flours/ingredients being used, look into why the recipe calls for them- if, like in this case, the recipe maker requires it to be gluten-free but you don’t, think about perhaps adjusting (gluten-free recipes make concessions in texture for the sake of the gluten removal, so you may get a richer or better feel without those flours)
- Let the truffle filling sit in the tarte shell for quite some time before adding the ganache topping- the truffle may break or fall. This could perhaps be saved into a marbled tarte, but it would be tricky, and you would probably have to add more ganache on top to have an even look from the top-down. Luckily for us, Saloni has a steady hand and is far less freaking-out-ish than I, so she calmly spread the ganache on top with our bread knife (for lack of a metal spatula…) and saved the day :)
