Dazzling Chocolate Tart

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg yolks
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped toasted hazelnuts
  
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  
• 1 cup heavy cream
  
• 8 ounces SCHARFFEN BERGER 70% Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped*
  
• 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
  
• SCHARFFEN BERGER Natural Cocoa Powder – Unsweetened, for dusting

Directions:

Stir 1 egg yolk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla together in a small bowl. Pulse the confectioners’ sugar and the hazelnuts in a food processor until 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 and up to 2 days.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch fluted 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 finger tips to evenly line the sides and bottom of the pan. Trim the edge. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.

Bake the pastry shell for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.

Bring the cream just to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of about 1 1/2-inches of barely simmering water, whisking until smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Whisk together the remaining 2 egg yolks and the brown sugar in a medium bowl. Slowly pour in the cream to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking frequently at first and constantly when it begins to thicken, for 6 to 8 minutes, 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. Pour through a fine strainer set over a large glass measuring cup or bowl.

Whisk the custard and the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla into the chocolate. Cool the mixture to room temperature. Whisk the mixture to blend, pour into the pastry shell, and chill for at least 3 hours, until set and thoroughly chilled, or up to overnight.

Let the tart stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. Dust with cocoa powder and serve the tart cut into thin wedges.

Serves 10 to 12

*Note:  If you don’t have the specific chocolate called for, substitute another chocolate with about the same intensity - the higher the percent of cacao solids (labeled as % cacao) in a bar, the more intense the chocolate flavor.  Bars labeled simply as bittersweet, semisweet or dark can be used in any recipe calling for chocolate of less than 70% cacao.