Thursday, March 4, 2010

Aria Chocolate Tart


Well, hello again March, it's been far too long indeed.

I won't deny it - my song belongs to the late summer breeze and turning leaves that is the beginning of Autumn. To me, March is a collection of the best moments of the previous Seasons - Summer's gentlly warming touch, Spring's painted bouquet, and Winter's invigorating zephyrs. My heaven would be a year of March's.

Month-infatuation aside, I also get excited when it's bounty of beautiful Autumnal produce arrives. Yes, my beloved Nectarine's will slowly bid me farewell, but to help fill the void are Brilliant Berries, Fleshy Figs, Charismatic Corn and Put-me-at-ease Pumpkin to name a few.

I scurry about digging up Autumn recipes to place in my cooking basket, ready and waiting. Whilst I was selecting which ones would make the cut, I needed something to make this week, something special. I saw this tart on Masterchef and wondered if it could defeat the Triple Chocolate Praline Tart that has more requests than any other dish but takes a touch too long to make on the day.



ease: 3.5/5. Lengthy.
prep time: 2 hours to final chilling stage.
cooking time: 2 hours at least in fridge.
total: 4 hours.

taste: 4/5. Not the best triple chocolate tart, but still worthy of praise.

The crust is wonderful - slightly bitter but deep with cocoa earthiness and a firm but yielding texture.

The problem I had was that I couldn't really distinguish the filling from the glacage. The glacage is soft but also bitter from the cocoa and overpowering as it smothers the subtle, sweet and soft centre - perhaps use a deeper dish to have a more filling-to-glacage ratio.

I think I prefer this crust to the Triple Praline Tart's crust texture wise, although it is more bitter than the other.
This makes an excess of crust and filling - I made one long rectangular tart, 4 individual tarts and 1 mini cake tart and I still had left over filling.

would I make it again: No. It's nice, but nice doesn't take first place.

recipe: Aria Chocolate Tart

16 comments:

  1. That tart is droolworthy! To die for!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, nearly a year on and this Masterchef Tart is still quite famous :) I can't wait for Season 2!

    It's a great choc tart but I'm always on a lookout for others. And the impression I get from you is that the Triple Chocolate Praline Tart is better? Looks like I'm going to have to research that :)

    Umm chocolate...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well although it doesn't take first place the layer are gorgeous and the textures sound amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This tart looks heavenly delicious!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Summer's gently warming touch, Spring's painted bouquet, and Winter's invigorating zephyrs..."
    this makes me wish it was time for autumn here!
    great tart--'nice' is good enough for me! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gorgeous! Autumn is also my favorite only it won't be happening for months and months here!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Holy mother of chocolate that looks good. I can't say I have ever sucessfully made any tart filling that didn't ooze out when cut into.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow. What a gorgeous, gorgeous tart. The photos are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hehe, I'm glad you've tasted multiple triple chocolate tarts to let us know which one is the best :). These still look pretty awesome to me. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh I love this recipe.
    And I love March too. Makes me feel happy, only listening the birds singing or the flowers growing. Hurray for Spring! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oops... Listenings TO the birds. :P

    ReplyDelete
  12. This looks great. Thanks for sharing this. Many people would definitely try this including me.Two thumbs up for a job well done....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gorgeous and very droolworthy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I've been eyeing the full recipe for so long, but it looks so complicated and mainly time consuming. The tart looks amazing though!!

    By the way, autumn is by far my favourite season!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. That picture is downright delicious! I could barely tear my eyes away long enough to read the article :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. My tarts never turn out looking so good.

    ReplyDelete