Raspberry chocolate tart

This recipe for raspberry chocolate tart was sponsored by Cacao Barry. This easy chocolate tart is filled with a milk chocolate ganache. If you can make cookies, you can make this tart! Strawberries would work beautifully too in this recipe.

I love combining coffee and raspberries. I shared a coffee and raspberry bread pudding that was admittedly not the most photogenic, but it was so tasty! Then there's the classic combinations of chocolate and raspberry, and coffee and chocolate: you can't go wrong with either of those. So I thought to myself: why not combine all three, chocolate, coffee, and raspberries, to make the best milk chocolate tart.

How do I make chocolate ganache?

Ganache is made from a mixture of chocolate and cream usually. That's it. Though ganache is made with only 2 ingredients, there are a few different techniques for combining them to make a smooth, perfect ganache:

1. Some will melt the chocolate first and then add a warm liquid (usually cream), slowly working it in.
2. Others will heat the cream with the chocolate, together, in a saucepan or over a double boiler.
3. I was taught to heat the cream on the stove in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, then pour the hot (almost boiling) cream over the chocolate in a large bowl. Let the mixture stand, undisturbed for a minute or two, then using a wooden spoon or spatula, slowly stir, working mostly in the centre of the bowl first to evenly melt the chocolate, combining it with the hot cream to form a stable emulsion. Once the middle is properly mixed, you then start making bigger and bigger stirring motions until the ganache is evenly melted and combined, shiny and fluid.

Of course, to make things a little more complicated, there's also this thing called a water ganache that doesn't have any cream at all. I don't have much experience with this, though I did make one earlier this year following a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Gho's gorgeous baking book called "Sweet" (highly recommend this book! If you don't have it you can buy it on Amazon). For that recipe, I have to make a dry caramel that you deglaze with water, and then you use that hot watered down caramel to melt the chocolate. I thought the whole process was crazy but the results were fantastic, yielding a ganache with the fudgy texture of soft caramel candies. I'd say the water ganache would definitely fall under a more advanced ganache technique because there are so many places in the recipe where things could go horribly wrong. Trust me.

What can you make with ganache?

Ganache only has two ingredients, making it one of the simplest, yet most versatile chocolate recipes to make. Once the ganache is made, you can use it in so many applications, as:

• a pouring glaze: when the ganache is still warm, you can pour it over a cooled cake or dip cookies or donuts into it, like these baked chocolate donuts
• a cake filling: allow the ganache to cool slightly to thicken it before spreading
• a frosting: whip thick ganache to lighten it and make the most chocolaty, decadent chocolate frosting
• a filling for chocolate tarts: pour the warm ganache into tart shells that are completely baked and cooled. Chill the tart before serving. The tart recipe below is the perfect example of this, as is this rhubarb dark chocolate tart or this Earl Grey chocolate tart.
• homemade chocolate truffles: portion out and roll balls of ganache. It's super easy. Here's an example of lavender Earl Grey chocolate truffles.

There are so many things you can make with ganache once you've mastered the technique!

Milk chocolate ganache

Milk chocolate, as you probably guessed, contains a lot more milk (and often more sugar) than dark chocolate. For this reason, making a milk chocolate ganache can be a little trickier, especially if you want it to set fairly firm, like if you want to fill a tart shell with milk chocolate ganache or make milk chocolate truffles. The ratio of chocolate to cream that works for dark chocolate might not be appropriate for milk chocolate.

• For a ganache-filled chocolate tart made with dark chocolate: a 1:1 ratio of dark chocolate to cream, by weight, works very well. At this ratio, you can also make dark chocolate truffles, though some like to use a 2:1 ratio of dark chocolate to cream for a firmer truffle. It's really up to you.
• For a chocolate tart filled with a milk chocolate ganache: a 1:1 ratio of milk chocolate to cream will most likely be too soft. You are better off with a ratio of 2:1 of milk chocolate to cream, by weight. At this ratio, the milk chocolate ganache will set firm enough that the tart can be cut, but remains a little soft and pliable, unlike hard chocolate. Obviously, the higher the chocolate content, the firmer the ganache will be when chilled and set. I've tested a higher ratio of 2.5:1 of milk chocolate to cream and I found at this ratio, the ganache was difficult to get right. Getting all the chocolate melted with so little hot cream is tough and also, I noticed when cutting the tart, the ganache doesn't always adhere to the tart shell as well as it should. For tarts, I definitely would use a 2:1 ganache ratio with milk chocolate.

So, for a dark chocolate ganache tart, use a 1:1 ratio of dark chocolate to cream. For a milk chocolate ganache tart, use a ratio of 2:1 of milk chocolate to cream.

Choosing a chocolate for ganache

When you are working with a recipe like ganache that has only 2 ingredients and is 66% chocolate, you MUST use the best chocolate for baking, a chocolate that you like to eat, because this recipe is all about the chocolate. The chocolate is the star in this recipe, truly. For this recipe, I made the milk chocolate ganache with Cacao Barry's Alunga milk chocolate, which is sometimes referred to as the milk chocolate for dark chocolate lovers. It comes in 1 kilo resealable bags and is sold at IGA grocery stores in Quebec, as well as online via Vanilla Food Company. Alunga milk chocolate is creamy with a smooth, creamy texture and flavour that is not overly sweet, which is why even those that tend to prefer dark chocolate love it too. It's a really great chocolate for this tart (and for snacking on too!). The chocolate comes as "pistoles", kind of like very large chocolate chips, so you don't have to chop it to make ganache, which is very convenient!

A note about blind-baking a tart shell without filling

I'd guess that almost all the tart recipes that call for blind-baking a tart shell instruct you to use pie weights (dried beans or even dry rice) to weigh down the empty crust as it slowly bakes in the oven. People weigh down the crust as it bakes to make sure the crust bakes flat, without any bubbling. The pie weights will also support the walls of the tart shell as it bakes, preventing any slumping or distortion of the edge that can occur as the dough heats up in the oven. Blind-baking with pie weights works great, but lately, I've been blind-baking mini tarts without pie weights. I simply dock the chilled pastry with a fork and bake. No pie weights. I started doing this with tarts because I found it super annoying to blind bake 6 tarts and to have to line each one with parchment and fill with weights. The whole process drove me nuts. So I started to skip the step completely and I am happy to report I have no issues blind-baking a tart shell without pie weights. The key is to make sure you line your tart pan with the dough without stretching or pulling the dough. The dough must fall into all the nooks and crannies of the pan without stretching it. The dough must be pressed and fitted into the pan properly on all sides for this to work. I find the step of lining a tart pan with dough is the most crucial step when making a tart. What you do to the crust before it is baked has a HUGE impact on what happens in the oven and how your tart shell looks when it comes out of the oven. I find it is very important to take time on this step, to work with more than enough dough to line the pan without pulling, tugging, or stretching. The excess can be used to make cookies that you can decorate the tart with. There is zero waste. And when it comes to unmolding the tart, remember to use this trick to remove your tart from a tart pans with removable bottom.

Chocolate raspberry tart recipe

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry. I was compensated monetarily and with product. Thanks for supporting the companies that allow me to create content for Kitchen Heals Soul. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.
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