Timeout with J+S: Chocolate mousse tarts, anyone?

After my first encounter with the chocolate mousse tarts from Bourke St Bakery, I was determined to recreate these tarts, as they were soooo delicious. It is very tricky juggling a 5 month old baby and trying to bake at the same time but I managed to multi task and it helped to have lots of music, tv and toys to distract Jaeminkins. So over the next 2 days, I managed to bake, distract Jaeminkins, take photos and recreate the tarts and they were just as delicious. The pastry was so good too that I would definitely make it again.

The chocolate mousse requires a day to set and the pastry can be abit of work so I'd go about this dessert a day in advance.

Sweet shortcrust pastry makes 20 tart cases

400g unsalted butter chilled cut into 1.5cm cubes

20mL vinegar

100g caster sugar

170mL water
665g plain flour
5g salt

Method

1. Remove butter from the refrigerator 20mins before you start mixing as the butter should be soft but cold that it doesn't melt through the pastry while mixing.

2. Put the vinegar and sugar in a bowl and add the water, stirring well. Set aside for 10mins and stir again to completely dissolve the sugar

3. You can either mix dough by hand or use of the food processor. I mixed by hand. Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl and toss through the butter. Use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour to partly combine. With the flourly mix you can see squashed pieces of butter.

4. Turn out onto a clean work surface and gather together. Sprinkle the sugar mixture and use the palm of your hand to smear the mixture away from you across the work surface. Gather together and repeat the smearing process twice more before gathering the dough again. You may need to smear once or twice more to bring it together and you should still be able to see streaks of butter marbled through the pastry this gives the pastry a slightly flaky texture to the final product. Divide the dough into two even sized portions and shape into two round flat discs about 2cm thick. Wrap each disc in pastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2hrs or overnight. (As I had limited time I went for the 2hr option) I decided to only use one of the round flat discs and freeze the other as it keeps for 2months.

5. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator 20mins before you wish to roll it. Sprinkle a little flour and rub a little flour over the rolling pin. Working from the centre of the pastry, gently roll the dough away from you and turn the dough 30degrees and roll out again. Repeat the process until you have a flat round disc about 3mm thick. Sprinkle extra flour over the bench and rolling pin as needed but try to use it sparingly as possible -if too much is absorbed the pastry will result in a dough with poor flavour and texture. Transfer the pastry to a tray and pace in the refrigerator covered in pastic wrap for at least 2hrs to allow gluten to relax.

6. Brush the 12 individual tart tins with a little butter. Cut the pastry using a round pastry cutter with 11cm diameter. Place the pastry on top of the mould ensuring it is in the centre and use your fingers to gently push the pastry intothe mould, moving around the rim until the pastry has been inserted. Set pastry cases aside and let it rest in the freezer for 20mins.

7.Preheat the over to 200C, line the pastry with baking paper and pour in baking beads or uncooked rice to fill cases and bake for 20-25mins until pastry is golden all over.

Chocolate Mousse Tarts (I halved the ingredients amounts and I was able to make 12 tarts)

Ingredients

chocolate mousse

100g finely chopped dark chocolate (55% cocoa)

150mL pouring cream (35% fat)
2 egg yolks
20g caster sugar for egg yolks
2 egg whites
10g caster sugar for egg whites

raspberry puree
63g raspberries (I found that frozen raspberries work well)
33g caster sugar (I tended to use less sugar 15g as it was becoming too sweet for my tastebuds)

1 quantity sweet shortcrust pastry
1/2 cup chocolate cake crumbs (I did without for this recipe)

Method

1. To make chocolate mousse, put chocolate and 50mL in a stainless steel bowl. Bring saucepan of water to boil, remove from the heat and place stainless steel bowl on top, making sure the base of the bowl doesn;t touch the water. Slowly melt the chocolate off the heat (take 10mins and stir occasionally)

2. Put remaining cream (100mL) in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form, careful not to overbeat and refrigerate until needed.

3. Place egg yolks in a stainless bowl and pour the sugar for the yolks on top and whisk well. Place over saucepan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Whisk continuously for 2-3minutes or until yolks are light and foamy. When you lift the whisk out of the mixture and let some fall back into the bowl it should sit on top for a few seconds before disappearing back into the mix, remove from heat.

4. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until foamy then sprinkle in the sugar for the whites, whisking continuously until soft peaks form.

5. Remove cream from fridge and if it becomes runny, whisk it until soft peaks form.

6. Add 3 tablespoons of the whipped cream to the melted chocolate. Whisk the warm egg yolk mixture into the warm chcolate to combine. Its important that the they are both warm or the mix will cease (if chocolate has cooled you will need to gently reheat it). Fold the egg white mixture into the remaining whipped cream, then fold this into the chocolate mix until well combined. Cover with pastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to set.

7. To make raspberry puree, put raspberries and sugar in food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover with pastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

8. After the pastry cases have been blind baked and allowed to cool, you can start to assemble. Spoon 3/4 teaspoon of raspberry puree into the base of each tart shell. The next couple of steps I missed as I was juggling Jaeminkins and attempting to get to playdate on time, so if you have more time you can do the following. Place the mousse in a piping (icing) bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe into the tart shells to slightly overfill them. With a small palette knight, scrape the mousse to be flush with the top of the tart shell. Sprinkle the chocolate cake crumbs over the top of each tart and serve.

The result was fantastic and the tarts were a hit at playdate. I even managed to take some great photos of Jaeminkins as I was loving the shadow affect as the morning sun streamed into our lounge room and Jaeminkins was watching 'In the night garden' (crazy children's show) and I didn't hear a peep for a good 15minutes which was enough time to get the pastry done and in the fridge. So I think I'm going to have to tape a few more episodes of that show.

Playdate with Miss M and Mr C. I think Miss M and Jaeminkins were discussing how long its been since they had seen Mr C.

The next minute, the bubbas have been seated to watch an educational program and look they are so into it, especially Jaeminkins. I think he was a touch groggy after waking up after his nap but this photo is too funny.

Jaeminkins and Mr C studying the tv program closely