Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Mexican Chocolate Tart

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Sometimes, to create something beautiful, you have to do evil.

Mexican Chocolate Tart

There were five of them. I tore off all covers, leaving them bare-naked on the cold wooden surface. The first one was strategically placed right in the centre. I knew what was about to happen. Gazing at its shiny, smooth outer, my mouth could not be detained from smirking a little. Then I ran the knife through it for the first time. Easier than imagined. Chop chop chop it continued. Chop chop chop. Bits and pieces flew everywhere, covering the others that were silently sitting right next to it. Chop Chop Chop. First one done. Four to follow. Let's see if I can do three at once, I thought. The knife went down with three dull thuds each time. What a peculiar rhythm. Still one to go.

Mexican Chocolate Tart

As I said. Sometimes, to create something beautiful, you have to do evil.

Chopping chocolate really is not the most delicate activity in the kitchen. In fact, I thought it always creates a scenario reminding of the intro of Dexter. You know, where that whole procedure of preparing breakfast somehow has a murderous touch to it. Coming to the beautiful part, now.

This tart is insanely rich. The filling consists solely of a ganache made of chocolate and cream while the crust has a nice flaky crunch with hardly any sugar giving just the right level of sweetness. I would stick with the official version that I only had a small piece but the picture unfortunately outs me as a big old liar.

Mexican Chocolate Tart
Pants on fire.

Depending on what chocolate you use, it can be a bit pricey. However, you know what I did? I did a quick search online looking for reviews of chocolates and found a reliable source that told me how good they actually are. I have found one that was rather low in price, yet high in quality and it still tasted great (I tried it, of course).

As the recipe told me, I sifted a bit of cocoa over the tart which I actually would not do next time as the flavour overpowered the rest quite a bit. I kind of ate a thin layer off of the top first so I could indulge in the rest sans dutch-processed cocoa powder.

It's fairly easy to prepare yet decadent and just too good. I guess I have found myself another monster to munch on. ;)
The hardest part is to really keep it in the fridge for four hours before cutting it!

The magazine I found this in calls it 'Mexican Tarte', although I am not quite sure what is so Mexican about it.

Mexican Chocolate Tart

Mexican Chocolate Tart
Adapted from: Frau von Heute, 9th issue, 25.02.2011: Mexikanische Tarte

  • 160g (5.6 oz.) AP Flour
  • 100g (3.5 oz.) Butter
  • 50g (1.8 oz.) sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg yolk (size M)
  • 1 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 500g (17.6 oz.) dark milk chocolate (I was not too sure what exactly that was supposed to mean so I used 4 bars of 50% dark chocolate and 1 bar 30% so my ganache was generally rather on the milky side)
  • 400ml (13.5 fl. oz.) cream
  • 1 pack of vanilla sugar (this is lesser known in the US, I think you could either omit it or replace 1 ts cream with 1 ts vanilla extract)
  • Cocoa for dusting the cake (I recommend skipping this)

In addition:
  • Dry peas, beans or cherry stones for baking the crust blind.
  • Parchment paper for the same purpose.


  1. Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
  2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, egg yolk, cocoa and butter and knead until smooth (I did that with my hands). Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  3. Grease a 24cm (about 9'') spring form pan and and lay out dough, forming a crust. Prick it with a fork several times and lay out with parchment paper. Fill with dried peas.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes, remove peas and parchment paper and bake for further 10 to 15 minutes.
  5. Chop up chocolate and heat up cream in a small pot. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate along with vanilla sugar to the heated cream and stir until smooth. Let it cool off for 30 minutes. (I added the chocolate to the cold cream and heated everything on low heat just enough to let it melt. It worked fine for me and there was hardly any time needed to let it cool down.)
  6. Pour mass into crust and put in refrigerator for 4 hours. Dust with cocoa powder.

Forget about those damn calories and indulge!
Mexican Chocolate Tart

33 comments:

  1. Dude. That is an Oleander flower. Look it up and see why you shouldn't use it on a cake. Take care. ~Anon

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  2. Anon, although leaves and twigs are poisonous, the blossoms aren't. However, I understand what you mean and I am sorry if it upset you. I did not really think about it. Still, it's just decoration.

    Cheers,
    Tobias

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  3. I think you should lock the door before you are overrun with chocoholics! This is truly a decadent indulgence. I understand how waiting for it to cool would be torture. Great post-Simply delicious.

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  4. holy I am in LUST with this Tobias! You know what would make it more "mexican", some chili powder or maybe using a chili flavored dark chocolate!!!
    Great post too :)
    Running With The

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  5. Take that chocolate! Better then anger management. This is a tart after my own heart.

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  6. Decadent! That's my type of chocolate treat!

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  7. Your pictures are wonderful!! Not only the ones with the tortured chocolate, but also the tarte decorated with flowers :)

    Among all others on your blog, these are the ones I like the most :)

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  8. Good grief. This is like a chocolate cake intensified by a bazillion, it looks AMAZING! And your photos..temptation to the highest order :)

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  9. wow. this looks AMAZING. Nice replacement for the old standard chocolate cake.

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  10. Ohhh that looks good! I must be strange because I find chopping chocolate to be stress relieving!

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  11. What a lovely chocolate tart. So happy that I discovered your blog.

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  12. Oh yay! Another monster!! :D :D
    I LOVE the first picture of the interior of the tart- it looks amazingly good!! And definitely very rich! I can definitely how it earnt its monster tag!! I love hwo you decorated it with the flower too- it's very pretty ;)

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  13. BettyMartha, adding chili powder is such a grear idea! Think I am going to do that next time. I'd generally say that this tart is easy to modify. I was already thinking about adding one layer of peanut butter. Any kind of spices would be great, too. But now with your idea I'm thinking chili and cherries ;)

    momdecuisine, ha! Than I hope that there are not too many chocolate cakes to be found in your kitchen. ;)

    Karen, I am happy to have you on here :))

    Von, hehe, I was sceptical about adding the tag but on second thought there just no way this could not be one! thanks for showing some love for the monster ;)

    All of you, thank you for the nice comments! You are awesome and they're much appreciated!

    Cheers,
    Tobias

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    Replies
    1. Aloha from Hawaii Tobias! I just found your blog and this looks so ONO (delicious)! I don't know how hard this is to find in Europe, but here in the U.S. you can buy Mexican Chocolate. It is awesome with cinnamon and other spices. (A bit of chili I would guess.) If you have a store that will special order for you, or if you shop online, you might like it. It's Nestle Abuelita Authentic Mexican Chocolate. It comes in 6 small (3 in or so so) disks. It's also used for making Mexican Hot Chocolate. It's not creamy or something you'd want to sit and eat; it's more like a dry baking chocolate.
      Anyway, I'm so happy I found your blog!
      Mahalo, (Thanks)

      Amber

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  14. Oh Tobias, this is the most decedent and beautiful thing ever!

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  15. Oh, your chocolate tart looks positively heavenly... (or should I say evil? :)) What a beautiful blog. Stunning photography.

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  16. That looks absolutely divine. I wish I had a piece (or three) right about now. Calories be damned, I say!
    And as a side note, if anonymous commenters aren't eating the dessert in the picture, they shouldn't be overly worried about what kind of decorative flowers you place on top!
    Wonderful dessert.

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  17. I'm afraid I need this right now. Also - chopping chocolate is so much fun! I love it. Chocolate & nuts, with a big, well-sharpened knife, it's so satisfying.

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  18. Speechless! This is too dangerous around chocoholics like myself. Super rich chocolate... argh. I blame myself (or gene!) for gaining weight so easily!!! Otherwise I could finish 1/4 in one servings. ;-)

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  19. Little tear in my eye over all that chopped chocolate...could I chop and not sample at the same time is the question. ;)

    Decadent tart! Wow that picture. I want a slice.

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  20. Oh, my gosh, this is an amazing tart! So creamy and chocolaty...that photo with the fork is so enticing!!! Bravo for this one!!

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  21. I totally agree with your opening line of this blog post and you have certainly created a beautiful chocolate tart!

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  22. Arresting photos! This tarte looks like a divine indulgence.

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  23. Wow!!! This is amazing! So glad I found your amazing blog. I love your pictures too! Have you been taking pictures for long? Where do you buy your chocolate from? I live in London and find chocolate here very expensive and I can't seem to buy them in bulk!

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  24. Elsie, while I love to take pictures and have been doing that as a hobby for a while now, food photography is still very new to me and I'm still at the beginning. I'm saving up for a superior camera at the moment. I'm happy that you like them. :)

    I envy you for living in London! I lived in this beautiful city for a time that was well too short and cannot wait to finally get back? :(
    These particular ones I bought at Lidl but I can't guarantee that you can get it there as well because I moved back to Germany. ;)

    Everyone, thank you for all further comments!

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  25. Hi Tobias! First of all, that is one gorgeous creation. I just have one question: how much butter do you use for the crust? The directions say to knead with butter, but I don't see it on the ingredients list.

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  26. Anonymous! It's 100g or 3.5 oz.! Thank you SO MUCH for noticing! Missed that completely... how embarassing.

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  27. Hi! I also noticed about the butter, and the ingredients list also called for a tbs of cocoa; but it is not mentioned on the directions. By the color of the crust in the pictures, I'm guessing it is for such purposes, isn't it?
    Thanx

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  28. Hi Tobias! I'm a chocoholic and this tart looks simply decadent and rich. Thanks for stopping by and your photos are amazing. Truly an inspiration to me.. ;)

    Cheers, Jo

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  29. Oh my seems I really messed up with the ingredients this time. Deeply sorry and I corrected it now.

    Cheers,
    Tobias

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  30. Jo, aw you're just trying to adulate me calling my photos an inspiration to you considering how drop dead gorgeous yours are! ;))) Right back at you!

    Cheers,
    Tobias

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  31. I don't know what's more melted, the tart or me! I would like to have some! And regarding the "what's so mexican about it" question, the mexican flavors of course! Chocolate is a 100% mexican invention so that's why! Thanks for the recipe!

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