Tarte au Chocolat - the darkest chocolate cake ever

Photo updated in November 2010

If yesterday's salted butter caramel and milk chocolate mousse wasn't your cup of tea (maybe you're not into this salted butter caramel thing, or maybe you simply prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate), then here's another dessert to satisfy your chocolate cravings this week: Tarte au Chocolat. It's very, very dark and intensely chocolatey, with crazy amount of butter and sugar added (with just a spoonful of flour, so if you're eating gluten-free, you could easily substitute gluten-free flour here). I got the recipe from a Finnish recipe leaflet "Jälkiruokaklassikkoja Ranskasta" or "Classic desserts from France" - and it had got rave reviews on my Estonian site, so I decided to try it myself. I'm glad I did - it tasted absolutely wonderful. If yesterday's pud was juvenile, to use Luisa's words, then this is very, very adult indeed.

Tarte au Chocolat
(Tarte au Chocolat ehk prantsuse šokolaadikook)
Serves 10



200 g dark chocolate (I used 72%)
200 g butter
200 g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp plain/all-purpose flour

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt with butter either in a microwave or in bain marie. Stir in sugar, let cool a little.
Using a wooden spoon, mix in eggs, one at a time.
Sift in the flour, stir until combined.
Pour the batter into a buttered 24 cm springform tin. Bake in the middle of a preheated 200C oven for about 25 minutes, until the cake is slightly crisp on the top, but still moist inside (see photo).
Take out of the oven and cool. Serve with whipped cream and season's berries.

More tasty chocolate cakes on Nami-nami:
Chewy Chocolate Walnut Brownies (January 2008)
David Lebovitz's Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake with Chocolate Glaze (December 2007)
Nigella Lawson's chocolate cherry cupcakes (April 2006)
Nigella Lawson's Store-cupboard Chocolate-Orange Marmalade Cake (November 2005)

Just in time for Valentine's Day: Salted Butter Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse

I discovered the wonders of salted butter caramel few years ago, when a kind reader sent me a box of Fran's Chocolates Smoked Salt Caramels. Since then, I've bookmarked pretty much every recipe with a salted butter caramel element I've come across. High on the current to-do list are David's Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream (and I'll make sure to hunt down one of his delectable Chocolat Chaud au Caramel-Beurre-Salé when in Paris), Clotilde's Tarte Tatin with Salted Butter Caramel, to name just a few. Of course I bookmarked the recipe for Fanny's (well, Trish Deseine's) Caramel au beurre salé and milk chocolate mousse as soon as I saw it, and then bookmarked it again when it appeared on Luisa's blog.

I warn you, this is very sweet. But then the title says that already, so no surprises there. I loved dipping my spoon into it, and considering it was so easy to make, I will be making it again soon (though maybe in smaller portions, serving 8 or even 10?). The quantities and instructions below are very-very slightly modified.

Salted Butter Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse
(Piimašokolaadikreem soolase karamelliga)
Serves 6



125 ml (1/2 cup) caster sugar
3 Tbsp water
200 ml whipping cream (35%), at room temperature
2.5 Tbsp (35 grams) butter, at room temperature
a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes
200 grams milk chocolate*, broken into small chunks
3 large eggs, separated

Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat to a dark caramel, swirling as it begins to brown to distribute the sugar (do not stir, as sugar will form lumps then.) Take off the heat and add butter. Stir, until combined, then add the warm cream. Season with salt.
Add the chocolate and stir gently, until chocolate melts smooth. Mix in the egg yolks.
Whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks. Fold one-third of the egg whites into chocolate mixture, then gently fold in the rest.
Divide between 6 small ramekins or dessert cups and chill for at least 6 hours.

* I used Kalevi piimašokolaad (32% cocoa content).

Whipped Cream, Caramelized Bread

I'm in the mood for simple Estonian desserts lately. Take this one - you fry some grated sour rye bread in butter with sugar until crispy and caramelized, then fold into whipped cream and serve with jam. In the matter of minutes you've got an excellent quick pudding. And if grating bread seems like too much work, then you can just use ready-made rye bread crumbs available in the supermarket (that's what I do). The dessert is very similar to Shy Danish Country Girl pudding and not too dissimilar to the Scottish Cranachan pudding, but still distinctive enough to deserve a separate post.

Enjoy!

Estonian Rye Bread Dessert with Whipped Cream
(Vahukoore-leivakreem)
Serves 4

120 g dryish rye bread
1 Tbsp butter
100 ml sugar
0.25 tsp cinnamon
300 ml whipping cream + 2 Tbsp sugar

To serve:
some nice jam

Grate the bread and fry on the pan with butter and sugar until caramelised (do not burn!). Season with cinnamon and put aside to cool completely.
Whisk the cream with 2 Tbsp of sugar until soft peaks form. Fold in the cooled crispy rye bread mixture.
Spoon into dessert glasses and top with some nice jam. It's best to use some jam with some sharpness - be it apple and flowering quince jam (on the photo) or apple and lingonberry jam or such like.

Eat at once to enjoy the caramelized gritty breadcrumbs or wait until later for the breadcrumbs to soften again.