Chocolate Tart, like a Flower

Before starting this Chocolate Tart recipe, organise all the necessary ingredients for the vanilla rich shortcrust pastry.

In the stand mixer recipient, place the butter and castor sugar.

Blanch the ingredients with the flat beater for a few minutes until homogeneous.

Add the salt.

Split the vanilla pod lengthwise with a knife, then scrape the seeds out.

Add the vanilla seeds to the bowl.

Add the egg. Combine well.

Gather the almond powder, flour and baking powder and blend together.

Add the powder ingredients to the bowl...

... and combine until homogeneous.

Transfer the dough on your kitchen worktop. Quickly work the dough (stretching and regathering) with your palm. Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap with cling film and refrigerate during at least 2 hours.

For the honey and chocolate ganache: For the honey and chocolate ganache

In a saucepan, heat the whipping cream, the honey...

... and the butter. Bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and let the preparation go down to 80°C.

Pour the hot preparation over the dark and milk chocolates.

Combine until completely melted. Set aside.

For the chocolate petals: Cut a petal shape from hard cardboard. The petals should have a length of 10 cm and a width of 4 or 5 cm.

Using your piece of cardboard as a guide and a box cutter, cut petal shapes from acetate. Cut a total of 50 petals to create a flower big enough to cover the surface of the tart.

Using the box cutter, cut carefully around the cardboard shape.

Gently detach the petal shapes...

... and fold them in half lengthwise to create a central line.

Tempering the chocolate: Organise all the necessary ingredients.

Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie , stirring gently. You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave, in periods of 20 seconds to make sure it does not burn.

When the chocolate has almost completely melted (only a few solid pistoles should remain), remove the recipient from the bain-marie. At this stage, the chocolate is roughly 40°C.

The temperature should not exceed 45°C.

The chocolate will continue melting without exposing it to any source of heat. This should bring the temperature down to about 34-35°C when totally melted.

Add the Mycryo cocoa butter. This cocoa butter is 100% natural. The use of a digital kitchen scale is essential for the cocoa butter.

Sprinkle the cocoa butter over the chocolate at 34°C.

Wait for a little while and let the powder melt slowly before stirring. Combine and let the temperature go down to 28°C.

To monitor the temperature of the chocolate, the use of a thermometer is essential. I recommend using a laser thermometer, as this product provides accurate information without being in direct contact with food.

When the chocolate gets to 28°C, the chocolate is ready to use. Make sure the chocolate is maintained at 28°C while it is used. This is a standard process for moulding chocolates (Easter or Christmas chocolates), chocolate shells or chocolates with filling.

Moulding the petals: Apply the white chocolate with a round brush...

... and coat the whole surface of the plastic shape. Leave to crystallize at room temperature.

Repeat this operation twice (3 layers of white chocolate are necessary to make the petals) and leave to crystallize between each layer.

When set, gently detach the chocolate petal from the acetate mould. The petals should come off easily.

Arrange the chocolate petals on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. To create the centre of the flower, apply the same technique with a half sphere mould (Ø 3.9cm).
Release from the mould and store the chocolate shapes in the freezer.

For the velvet pearl finish: Reheat the velvet pearl spray in a bain-marie at 50°C for about 30 minutes.
Shake the bottle until you can hear the metal ball moving inside the can. The pearl velvet chocolate icing is ready to use.

Take the chocolate petals out of the freezer and spray them with velvet pearl icing, from a distance of 30cm.

Make sure the whole surface of the petals is coated with chocolate. Set aside.

For the pastry case: Roll out the vanilla rich shortcrust pastry to a thickness of 3 or 4mm.

Line a tart ring (Ø 26cm) with the pastry.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (gas 4) for 20 minutes. When cooked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Place a strip of PVC plastic, cut to a width of 3 cm, all around the tart case.

Spread a thin layer of Cara Crakine at the bottom of the pastry case...

... using a cranked spatula.

Cover with the cold chocolate ganache (it should still be liquid)...

... up to the rim of the plastic strip. Let set in the fridge. Transfer the ganache excess into a piping bag and refrigerate.

Assembling the tart: The tart should take about one hour to set. Remove the tart from the fridge and remove the PVC strip. You can also leave the plastic strip to serve. Simply remove it just before slicing the tart.

Pipe the chocolate ganache in pointed dots all around the outer edge of the tart.

Place the half sphere in the centre of the tart.

Arrange the petals one by one around the centre.

Start with the outer row first then work your way towards the centre. 40 or 50 petals should allow you to create 3 tiers.

Complete the decoration by drizzling gold flakes over the surface of the tart.