Cheese, while not prominent on the dessert spotlight, can be the key ingredient in many a high-quality sweet-treat. Especially Ricotta cheese! Andy King, who co-wrote the cookbook Baking by Hand told Tonia's Kitchen, he and his wife Jackie have made a delicious, high-quality Chocolate Ricotta Tart that's made with local, hand-whipped ricotta cheese. Andy says they start with a chocolate short-dough baked into small pastry shells. They take the fresh ricotta, and combine it with vanilla and a natural sweetener like Agave. The cheese takes on a very creamy texture that's absolutely delicious! Fill the shells with the mixture and top with fresh raspberry and chocolate shavings, and that's bound to please almost every dessert lover!
Yield: Eight 4-in/10-cm
tartlets
5 oz/140 g flour
2.8 oz/80 g unsweetened cocoa
powder
1/4 tsp/2 g fine sea salt
5 oz/140 g unsalted butter,
softened
6 oz/175 g granulated sugar
1/4 tsp/4 ml vanilla extract
0.4 oz/11 g egg yolks
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Raspberry Jam
2 quarts/2 L raspberries
⅓ cup/80 ml water
1 tbsp/15 ml lemon juice
1 (1.75 oz/50 g) package
pectin, such as Ball®
Original Fruit Pectin
42 oz/1 kg granulated sugar
1 lb/450 g ricotta cheese
(high quality, whole milk self-draining, ricotta cheese such as
Calabro Ricotta cheese)
3.5 oz/100 g granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split and
scraped
56 fresh raspberries
1 bar of your favorite
chocolate, for making chocolate curls
For the crust, mix the flour,
cocoa powder and salt together. Next, combine the butter, sugar and
vanilla extract in a bowl. Mix it with a wooden spoon or rubber
spatula until it is smooth and there are no lumps and a smooth paste
has formed. Add the egg yolks and mix to combine. Add the dry
ingredients and mix until all the ingredients are evenly combined to
form a very dark, almost black, tart dough. Chill the dough for about
30 minutes before rolling out. This dough can also be chilled
overnight, but it will need to be warmed up before rolling it out or
it will crack. If it does, however, it is easy to mold back together
by pushing it back with your fingertips. It will also freeze well
wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.
Roll the dough out to about ⅛
inch/3 mm on a floured surface and cut the circles out with a 4
1/2-inch to 5-inch/11 to 12-cm circular cutter. Immediately set these
circles into eight ungreased 4-inch/10-cm fluted tartlet pans. Mold
the dough to the shape of the pans, trimming the excess dough all
around the edge, making it flush with the top. Chill the tart dough
for at least 1 hour or up to overnight. After it is chilled, prick it
with a fork before baking to decrease the bubbling up of the dough,
as well as to ward off shrinkage during the baking process.
Preheat the oven to
375°F/190°C with a rack in the middle. These tart shells do not
need to be blind-baked with pie weights. The tart dough stays put
during baking. Bake the shells for 16 minutes, rotating the tray of
tart shells once after 8 minutes. Remove the shells from the oven and
let sit for 2 minutes. Take the egg white and brush it onto the
surface of the shells, including the sides, then put it back in the
oven for 2 minutes. This helps to seal the surface of the shell to
ward off sogginess brought on by the wet filling. Cool completely
before use.
For the raspberry jam, combine
the raspberries, water, lemon juice and pectin in a sauce pot. Stir
and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring as needed to prevent
scorching. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Bring it all back to a
rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil like that for 1
minute. If you fail to boil it this hard, the pectin may not activate
fully and the jam will be runny. Skim the scum and store the jam in
an airtight container in the refrigerator.
For the vanilla bean ricotta
filling, put the cheese, sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a food
processor. Process the mixture until smooth and somewhat shiny. Give
it a stir and process a little more. No lumps or graininess should be
present. Use immediately or store for up to 4 days in the
refrigerator.
Assembling the tartlets
Fill each tart shell with 2
ounces/50 g of the ricotta filling. The filling should come up to the
edge of the crust. Place seven raspberries around the outer edge of
the filling, or in any way you find pleasing, and use a vegetable
peeler to shave chocolate curls, arranging them in the center of each
tart. Keep chilled until serving. These can be made up to 1 day in
advance. If there is any extra filling and raspberries, feel free to
just gobble them up together. You won’t be sorry.