Chocolate-Espresso Tart

It's not a birthday without chocolate. No, really. If you've celebrated a birthday without something delicious and chocolately it doesn't count, feel free to deduct it from your age. Well, don't, if only for the reason that I worry that this mode of thought would prevent people from indulging in something chocolate on their birthday, if only to negate the years. Don't do that.

Have something chocolate on your birthday.

In fact, have this something chocolate on your birthday. Do you remember how for the last month I've spoken about little more than my love for Martha Stewart's New Pies & Tarts book? This recipe came from there. I'm embrace my borderline unhealthy obsession with Martha. Okay, I embrace my unhealthy obsession with Martha. I promise I'm not the bad kind of crazy. 

But this pie, it's right in the middle of the book. Every time the book fell open, for a week and half, it fell open to this pie. It was speaking to me through the binding. It had to be made.

Luckily, my Cap had a birthday... which required two different sorts of pie (like they do), and I guess the pie was speaking to him too, because he chose it! It was serendipity at its pastry finest.  

 It helps to have some taste-testers to clean your beaters, too.

Chocolate-Espresso Tart

from Martha Stewart's New Pies & Tarts Cookbook 

makes one tart 

Ingredients
    8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 61 percent cacao), chopped
    1 1/4 cups heavy cream
    2 tablespoons good-quality ground espresso beans
    1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for parchment paper
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
    1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
    1/4 cup sugar
    3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    3 tablespoons heavy cream
    1 1/2 cups mascarpone cheese
    1 large egg

Directions

1. Make the ganache: Put chocolate into a medium heatproof bowl, and set aside. Bring cream and espresso to a boil in a small pan. Pour through a fine sieve over the chocolate; discard solids. Let stand 2 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Let cool to room temperature, 1 to 2 hours.
2. Make the tart shell: Sift flour, salt, and cocoa powder into a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the cream. Shape dough into a thick rectangle; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of lightly floured parchment paper to a 16-by-6-inch rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Press dough into a 14-by-4 1/2-inch rectangular tart frame set on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Trim dough flush with top edge. Prick all over bottom of shell with a fork. Bake until firm, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely. Unmold.
4. Put ganache into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip (such as Ateco No. 828).
5. Smooth mascarpone cheese over bottom of tart shell with an offset spatula.
6. Pipe ganache rosettes, one next to the other, on top of mascarpone to cover.