Let's visit with the authors of a cookbook called Baking By Hand written by Andy and Jackie King. Andy told Tonia's Kitchen they
emphasize working with fresh, high-quality ingredients, and one of
their featured recipes includes a really yummy treat for the holidays!
It's a 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!
Chocolate Short Dough
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
Vanilla Bean Ricotta Filling
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.