Made this Chocolate Ganache Tart with Lots of Lemon in Patisserie class
about 6-7 years ago, yummy stuff, and would be great with your candied lemon peel.
Chocolate Ganache Tart with Lots of Lemon
Rich, intense, dense, and delicious, this is the sort of dessert you’d expect in a very fancy restaurant. Just before serving, try lightly sifting cocoa over the tart or serve with lemon ice cream if you’d like. The recipe uses approximately 2 lemons.
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp whole unblanched almonds
3/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Stir together 1 egg yolk and the vanilla in a small bowl. Process the sugar and almonds in a food processor until the almonds are finely ground. Add the flour and salt and process just until blended. Add the butter and pulse just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk mixture and pulse just until the mixture begins to come together when a small bit is pressed between your fingers. Do not overprocess; the mixture should not form a ball. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in wax paper, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Butter the bottom and side of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to an 11-inch circle. Transfer to the prepared pan and press in the dough with your fingertips to evenly line the side and bottom of the pan. Trim the edge. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
At least 25 minutes before baking, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375ºF. Bake the pastry shell for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.
Bring the cream and the zest just to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Whisk the remaining 2 egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the cream mixture to the yolks, whisking constantly until combined well. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and leaves a path on the back of a wooden spoon when a finger is drawn across it; do not allow the mixture to boil.
Whisk the cream mixture and the lemon juice into the chocolate. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a 4-cup glass measure and whisk until completely smooth. Cool the chocolate mixture to room temperature, pour into the pastry shell and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight, until set and thoroughly chilled.
Let the tart stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cutting into thin wedges and serving. Serves 12
Source: Luscious Lemon Desserts, Lori Longbotham
Pat’s notes: To dollop on top I prepared softly whipped cream flavored with a little vanilla extract and a couple tbsp of syrup remaining from preparing candied lemon peel. Then garnished with a few small strips of candied lemon peel. Next time I might whip the cream a little longer to stiffen enough to pipe a rosette on top of the tart slices.
More Pat’s notes: It’s a bit of a challenge rolling the crust out, it wants to break up when you go to put it in the tart pan but not to worry, just go ahead and position the rolled out dough as best as possible over the tart pan then press the dough into the shell on the bottom and up the sides. I’ve found that it doesn’t really need to be chilled as long as the recipe states. I found it acceptable to chill the initial dough disk 30-45 minutes (popped in freezer about 20 minutes); chill the dough in the tart pan about 30 minutes before baking; and once the baked tart shell has cooled (about 20-30 minutes) go ahead and pour in the ganache filling. There’s no particular reason that I could tell for having to chill the ganache filling as long as the recipe states, I only chilled mine about 20 minutes and actually next time I might just go ahead and pour the barely warm ganache into the cooled tart shell, it might make it easier to smooth the top vs a chilled ganache.
