This warm chocolate tart by Francois Payard of Payard Patisserie and Café Daniel fame is superb. 
And better yet, it is really pretty simple to make. I have made this tart at least half a dozen times and it has never failed to awe dinner guests and dessert aficionados alike… Disarmingly simple to look at, it is liquid gold in your mouth. I normally save this tart for very special dinners and the Christmas holidays but I will occasionally whip it up for a birthday or other special occasion. I am posting it now so that you guys can try it once before the holidays then you will be well prepared to make it for the holidays… I kid you not, this tart beats most homemade desserts by a mile. Rooting around one of our refrigerators the other week, I came across a stash of Valrhona chocolate – what to do with over 1.5 kilos of the stuff! – a tart of course, then soufflés, sorbets, hmmm…
First make the tart dough or pate sucree and you will need 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon 
confectioners sugar, 1 and ¾ cup of all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt, 9 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened (buy the best you can afford, watery butters are not appreciated) and one large egg (extra large in the Philippines, please). Sift together sugar, flour and salt. Put butter in food processor and zap for 15 seconds. Add flour and zap until just mixed and a mass of dough forms. Do not over mix. Divide dough into two, form into discs and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Dough may be frozen for up to a month. Defrost dough for 15 minutes and roll out on floured surface. I cheat and do this over wax paper as it is hard to do this in a tropical country with high humidity. Transfer dough, to tart pan with removable bottom. Fix tears with your fingers, perfection not necessary. Chill tart pan in fridge at least an hour and up to 1 day. In other words, you can do all of this up to two days before you bake the actual tart. Cut a piece of foil round and place at the bottom of the tart, weigh this down with coins or bakers weights and partially bake in a preheated 325 degree F oven for 15 minutes; remove foil and bake 5 more minutes. Remove and cool.
To make the tart, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 
You will need 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (buy the best you can afford, it makes a notable difference), ¾ cup heavy cream (I use whipping cream in Manila or cooking cream and it works but real heavy cream is best), ½ cup whole milk, 1 large egg lightly beaten. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the cream and milk in a pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate then whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Cool for 10 minutes. Whisk the egg into the chocolate mixture, pour filling into the prebaked tart shell and stick into the oven. Bake the tart for just 8-10 minutes until the edges of the filling are set and the center still jiggles. Cool the tart for 15 minutes before serving. You can make this earlier in the day and warm in an oven before serving. It is also great at room temperature with sliced strawberries on top and a dollop of whipped cream. Can also be served warm with good vanilla ice cream. Absolutely delicious. And this recipe is absolutely totally Monsieur Payard’s. Bravo!
11. Along with your answer to the first 10 clues, please put your SHOE SIZE and leave a comment in the original post on the book give-away raffle. For Example, “Geneva, 7.5” or “Bislig, 12″… Heehee. Thanks for playing along. And in case you were curious, this recipe above is absolutely, positively, one of my most favorite chocolate recipes.
21 Responses
Do they have this for sale at his restaurant/cafe, “Payard”, in NYC? I go to school nearby and i’ve been in once to look around, but I can’t remember if they serve this. I did notice the “Kalamansi Sorbet” (maybe it was ice cream?) though!
So you use coins too as pie weight. For taller sided tarts, I use coins in conjunction with baking plastic bags which btw are also great for baking your chicken relleno specially if you throw in a sprig of rosemary before sealing the bag. To roll our pie crust we sandwich it in two sheets of cheese wrap which is a lot thicker than saran but not as thick as zip-lock over a 1/8’ particle board with a circle cut-out, rolling and sizing it at the same time. Chill and peel the plastic off over the tart pan. Exact, quick, effortless and tear-free crusts and eyes.
I went once to Chez Payard in NYC to try their cannelé and ended picking up financiers and petit brioches too. The cannelés tasted like burnt casaba bibingka to me while the financiers and brioches were not bad. I found the place really intimidating and that’s not on account of the giant security guards.
I love it when things that are really yummy are not that difficult to make! Will try it soon and try to make Messieurs Payard and Marketman proud! May I ask, have you baked with Callebaut chocolate? (spelling?) A place nearbye sells this brand and although I have heard of it ,am not sure if I ever tried it before. Any comments or thoughts on it? Would it work with this tart?
MasPinaSarap, I am not sure if he serves this at his restaurant, it might be too simple, but it is delicious. He published a book with easier to make at home recipes… Apicio, I only use coins because I can never find my bloody pastry weights when I need them… they are in the kitchen somewhere but coins work just as well. I like your solution for rolling out dough, I typically wing it and always regret I am not more patient… Alicia, Callebaut is good but I like Valrhona better. Callebaut is used by many professionals and as a piece of trivia, is kosher approved… What store carries this as it would be good to know for future reference… thanks!
Mmmm… that sounds really delicious! Will have to try it sometime! I am normally afraid to try anything that has dough, because baking seems like such a mystery to me.
I’ve only tried Callebaut chocolates as an on-the-pillow treat a hotel, and I loved them. I’ve tried both Valhrona and Scharffen Berger in pots de crème and crème brûlée, and I couldn’t decide which I like better. They’re both yummy :)
Anyway thanks for posting this!
Did you mean 15 minutes for zapping the butter or 15 seconds? It just sounds like a long time to get the butter into fine bits. I will have to try this tart, and the picture just makes me want to eat it up.
dried beans or rice work well as pie crust weights too…
Mila, THANK YOU THANK YOU for catching that, you are right, it is 15 seconds and I have edited that. Thanks. Stef, I like dried beans or rice too but feel bad about dumping them afterwards…
hi mm, just some input to your query about where Callebaut is available in Manila, ive come across it in a hole-in-the-wall outlet called Chefs Nook in Mandaluyong (Pilar st if im not mistaken). here in Calgary ive been to the Callebaut outlets but they focus on their confectionary items not on chocolate as an ingredient.
re: Valrhona, have you tried their Guanaja or bitter dark variant for your recipes, heavenly!
Rina, yup have tried Valrhona different varieties. In fact, I wait for their sale when things are about to expire because the chocolate is stable for another 2-3 months if you are going to cook with it… so I get 30-50% off high prices but still get the chocolate I want!
Chef’s Nook is also in Glorietta (3 I think, near the food court, or that could be 4, one of those areas). And it used to be in Rockwell, basement level, among all the restaurants.
I agree with fried-neurons – baking is such a mystery, but since trying your Dayap Pie recipe I thought “hmm, that’s easy”. Only because that one demands less work and time to prepare. Impatient that I am, I’m a bit afraid to do your choco tart but it looks so “lecker” as the Viennese would say (delicious, appetizing) that I might give it a try and see if I would do it again :).
the tart looks great! as i am not planning a trip to the us soon, can anyone tell me where i can buy valhrona here in manila?
You can buy Valrhona chocolate at Bacchus in The Makati Shangrila. And apparently Callebaut in Mandaluyong in the store mentioned above…
hi again marketman, i don’t throw them away. i let them cool, keep them in a container marked “pie weights”, and reuse them. the only thing is, if you do that then you might as well have done it with your regular pie weights :D have you found them yet?
Yes, as rina said I found the Callebaut chocolate at a store Chefs Corner/Nook? one of those on Pilar St. in Mandaluyong.will post numberlnext time.On shaw blvd past Pure Gold. Its a left turn off shaw. They have a few interesting things but whats also nice about a trip to this small store is that it is adjacent to the main store of JiPan Bread. The baking is done in the back. You can get fresh hot bread there and although a smaller store, they sometimes have some bread not available in their megamall or glorietta stores..
i tried this recipe a long time ago using Callebaut bittersweet chocolate. it was SO rich that I could only eat one teeny tiny slice at a time. And I am a real sweet tooth/bitter chocolate lover!
Hello MarketMan!
Great site, great recipes! I’ve bookmarked your site a long time ago – I think someone from my yahoo groups recommended your site. I took a look at it recently, and now I’m hooked! I am going to try your Warm Chocolate Tart first.
I have a question…. the recipe for the crust goes something like this:
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*** Divide dough into two, form into discs and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Dough may be frozen for up to a month. ***
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The recipe states that I divide the dough into two discs. Do I use BOTH discs to make ONE crust? I’m sorry for my ignorance! I guess that’s pretty obvious, but I want to be sure. Unless I missed out something in the recipe.
Thanks again!
Ronnie
Ronnie, my apologies for the lack of precision. If you are good at rolling the dough, you only need one disc and you can use the other for another tart. If you can’t get it quite right, use one and a half discs and do it thicker as I usually end up doing…
Hi MM,
“Sift together sugar, flour and salt. Put butter in food processor and zap for 15 seconds. Add flour and zap until just mixed and a mass of dough forms. Do not over mix.”
I’m getting old maybe but for the life of me, I couldn’t see where the one extra large egg goes. I assume it goes after the butter?
Thanks! I so want to make this tart.
try to sprinkle the chocolate with fleur de sel before serving, you will not believe how well salt and bittersweet chocolate marries!