Beautiful recipe of Chocolate Tart With Star Anise And Cinnamon, a perfect complement to holiday dinners. Simple, elegant, and delicious.
I served this Chocolate Tart dessert on the Friday after Thanksgiving last year. It was a great success, mainly because everyone by then was already tired of turkey and pumpkin pie!
It was very refreshing to have a different type of dessert, even if some of the dishes on the table were still "Thanksgiving" ish.
This recipe is very "winter" like. The crust is a beautiful chocolate flaky pastry that is prebaked. The chocolate ganache is infused with cinnamon and star anise, and it is delicious.
The decor is up to you. I decorated the tart with star anise and cinnamon bark for an elegant, simple look.
It looks great on the table. The cocoa powder on top of the tart gave the dessert an elegant look.
This is a simple, decadent, and delicious tart recipe. Great for the holidays! And why not? Valentine's Day is also a great occasion to serve this fantastic dessert!
Ingredients
For the crust:
- All-purpose flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: Please use real cocoa powder and not Nesquick or other products that contain sugar, milk, and other ingredients to make hot chocolate. I like Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter: Most baked goods use unsalted butter. If you do not have it, please remove the salt from the recipe. Otherwise, the crust will be too salty.
- Egg yolks
- Sea Salt: this ingredient enhances the flavor of chocolate and the rest of the ingredients.
- Vanilla extract
Chocolate filling:
- Heavy cream
- Honey
- Vanilla bean
- Star anise
- Cinnamon stick
- Semi-sweet dark chocolate: broken into pieces. I always use semi-sweet chocolate bars that I chop with a serrated knife or break by hand. Do not use chocolate chips because they do not melt the way regular chocolate melts. Some of them are also waxy, and the taste is not great. If you absolutely have to use chocolate chips, try to use a quality brand, like Ghirardelli, for example. Even Bakers brand is good stuff.
- Unsalted butter: We use unsalted butter because we do not need salt in the ganache, so please stay away from the salted version.
How To Make This Chocolate Cake
Step 1. Chocolate tart crust: The process is almost the same as for any pie crust. You can do it in a bowl of a food processor, or you can do it by hand. I chose to do it by hand this time.
Place the flour, cocoa, salt, and sugar together in a large mixing bowl or on a smooth, floured work surface. Toss the ingredients together lightly with your fingertips. Scatter the cold cubes of butter over the dry ingredients.
Using your fingertips or a pastry tool, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolk and vanilla. Again, use your fingertips and mix to make a smooth dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gather it into a ball.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before using it.
Lift your dough over a rolling pin and lightly drape it over the tart pan. This tart pan could be a 9-inch regular pie baking pan or a tart pie with a removable bottom.
Press the dough gently into place with your fingertips.
Prebake the pastry shell as "blind bake":
Prick the bottom of the pastry shell with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes(this will help stop it from shrinking during baking.)
Place a large piece of parchment paper over the bottom and sides of the pastry shell. Fill the base with pie weights or dried uncooked beans.
Bake the tart shell at 350F for 8-10 minutes, remove the weight, and bake for another 4-5 minutes or until the bottom is dry and crisp. Leave the pie crust in the pan to cool on a wire rack and continue with the recipe.
Step 2. Rich Chocolate Ganache Filling: Gather the ingredients. You will need cinnamon sticks and star anise, which are, in my opinion, the stars of this delicious dessert.
I initially grabbed a measuring cup and added all the ingredients to it, but then I realized that I could add everything directly into my cooking saucepan.
Pour the cream, honey, vanilla bean or vanilla extract, cinnamon stick, and star anise into a small, heavy-based saucepan on medium-low heat and bring to a boil.
Remove the hot cream immediately from the heat and set aside to steep for a few minutes. (To steep means soaking the spices in the heavy cream to extract the flavors.) Place the chopped chocolate in a large bowl.
Pour the flavored cream through a strainer over the chocolate.
While the mixture is still warm, add the butter and stir gently using a spatula until blended. Don't over-stir. Pour the mixture into the cooked pastry shell on an even layer and set it in the refrigerator.
Dust the surface of the tart with cocoa powder and add fresh cinnamon sticks and star anise as decor.
This chocolate tart needs to be refrigerated. Serve it cold or at room temperature with whipped cream next to a cup of coffee or tea at the end of a dinner party.
A very special chocolate dessert that is perfect for the taste buds of a real chocolate lover.
Store The Dough
The dough can remain in the refrigerator for up to three days, or it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month. Thaw the dough, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator before rolling it out.
Enjoy!
Interested in more dessert recipes?
- Chocolate Cake With Tart Cherries
- Cranberry Custard Pie With Cream Cheese Crust
- Cocoa Walnuts Banana Bread Recipe
- Homemade Chocolate Desserts For Valentine's Day
📖 Recipe
Easy Decadent Chocolate Tart Recipe
Ingredients
Tart crust:
- 1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder preferably Dutch-processes
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ sticks unsalted butter chopped into small cubes
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate filling:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 vanilla bean split or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 star anise
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 7 ounces semisweet dark chocolate broken into pieces
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
To decorate:
- cinnamon sticks , a few star anise and unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
How to make the crust:
- Place the flour, cocoa, salt and sugar together in a large mixing bowl or on a smooth floured work surface. Toss the ingredients together lightly with your fingertips.
- Scatter the cold cubes of butter over the dry ingredients. Use your fingertips to work the butter into the flour mixture until it forms pieces the size of small peas.
- Gather the mixture into a mound, and make a volcano-like well in the center. Pour in the egg yolks and vanilla. Use your fingertips to break up the yolks and moisten the dry ingredients. The dough will be crumbly and really cohesive.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather it into a rough square. pat it down to compress it slightly.
- Cover it with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before using it.
- Any leftover dough can be frozen for up to 6 weeks.
- When ready to use it, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 2 inches larger than your pan.
- Lift your dough over a rolling pin and lightly drape it over the pan.
- Press the dough gently into place with your fingertips.
Prebake the pastry shell as a "blind bake":
- Prick the bottom of the pastry shell with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes(this will help to stop it from shrinking during baking.)
- Place a large piece of parchment paper over the bottom and sides of the pastry shell. Fill the bottom with pie weights or dried uncooked beans.
- Bake it at 350F for 8-10 minutes, remove the weight, and bake for another 4-5 minutes or until the bottom is dry and crisp.
- Leave the pie crust in the pan and continue with your recipe.
Chocolate mixture:
- Put the cream, honey, vanilla bean (or vanilla extract), the cinnamon stick and the star anise into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and set aside to steep for about 5 minutes.
- Place the chocolate in a large bowl. Pour the flavored cream through a strainer over the chocolate. While the mixture is warm, add the butter and stir gently using a spatula until blended.
- Don't over-stir. Pour the mixture into the cooked pastry shell and let set in the refrigerator.
- Decorate the tart by dusting cocoa powder over it, and add the cinnamon sticks and star anise.
Notes
- Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt in the bowl and pulse just to blend. Add the cubed cold butter and pulse a few times until the pieces are about the size of small peas.
- With the food processor running, add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and process just until crumbly. Do not overwork it. Turn it onto a work surface and bring it together into a square. Wrap it in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. Continue with the recipe.
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