David Lebovitz's Tarte Sablée au Chocolat Recipe

My usual chocolate tart is a recipe from Alice Medrich, with a smooth velvety chocolate filling made from cream. This makes a different sort of chocolate tart: the filling is also rich, but the texture is fluffy and billowy, with a almost brownie-like crust.  

Daily life often gets in the way of baking. I don't always have time to bake when I have a particular dessert craving, or more frequently nowadays, I want to bake something but I'm too full to eat it on the same day. So I channel my baking urges into making dough, which can be portioned and frozen, ready to be baked off on a whim on another day (much like the apple pies that I'm fond of making.)  Use a good chocolate, and give this tart a whirl. 

Tarte Sablée au Chocolat Recipe
Original Recipe from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
Sablée Dough
100g (3 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
75g (6 tablespoons) sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg, at room temperature
170g (1 cup plus 3 tablespoons) flour

Filling
150g bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, coarsely chopped
100g unsalted butter, cubed
30g sugar
1 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature

STEPS
The Tart
1. Using a spatula, combine butter, sugar, and salt. Add the egg and mix until mostly combined, then add the flour.

2. As the mixture comes together to form a dough, shape it into a disc and wrap it with clingwrap. Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes before continuing with the recipe. 

3. On a well-floured surface and rolling pin, roll out the dough until it’s 13-inches (33cm) round. Drape it over the rolling pin and transfer the dough onto a 9- to 9 1/2-inch (23cm) tart pan. Patch up any cracks in the dough. Gently press the dough up against the wall of the mold using a spare bit  of dough, then trim off any excess. With a fork, prick the bottom of the dough all over. Freeze the dough in the tart pan for at least 30 minutes. (The dough can be frozen as a disc (step 2) or after it had been pressed into a tart pan, to be used at a later date within the month.)

4. Preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF). Line the tart pan with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and continue baking until the inside of the tart is lightly browned, about 8 to 10 more minutes. Remove the tart shell from the oven. Any cracks in the tart can be patched up using excess dough scrapes. 

The Chocolate Filling
5. As the dough is baking, melt the butter in a small saucepan set over the lowest possible heat. Just as the butter finishes melting, add the chopped chocolate and stir briskly, until the chocolate melts. If the chocolate is at risk of burning, remove the saucepan from the heat and continue to stir, until it is safe to return the saucepan to the heat. You can use a double boiler if you wish. Remove the saucepan from the heat once the chocolate fully melts. Set aside.

6. Using an electric mixer set at high speed, whisk eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together for about 3-5 minutes, until the mixture is thick and can briefly hold its shape.

7. Gently fold the eggs into the chocolate mixture, then pour into the tart shell and bake at 180ºC (350ºF), for 10-12 minutes, until the tart feels almost set in the center when you shake the tart. Err on the side of underbaking rather than overbaking. 

8. Allow the tart to cool to room temperature, then slice into wedges and serve.

Tips:
Extra filling can be baked at 180ºC in little ramekins. Excess dough can be rolled out, cut into shapes and baked off as sablés (butter cookies)