Chocolate & Coffee with Maple & Cinnamon Tarts

Recipe by Pastryfied.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Decor:

This is entirely optional.  Feel free to decorate as you like.

200 grams dark chocolate, melted
Crisp pearls or cachous gold sugar pearls

Pecan-Cinnamon Streusel:

70 grams Westgold butter, cold and cut into 2cm cubes

85 grams Demerara sugar

70 grams standard flour (or cake flour)

70 grams pecan nuts, crushed

30 grams (or 1 1/2 tablespoon) maple syrup

5 grams cinnamon powder

Cocoa Sable Dough:

360 grams standard flour

40 grams Dutch cocoa powder

140 grams Westgold unsalted butter, cold & cut into cubes

140 grams icing sugar

2 grams salt

6 grams nutmeg powder

100 grams (around 2) eggs, size 7

Coffee Mousse:

150 grams white chocolate, finely chopped

250 grams cream (35% fat)

20 grams liquid glucose

30 grams coffee beans

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

150 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped

125 grams cream (35% fat)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract paste

25 grams Westgold butter, softened

10 grams honey

5 grams maple syrup

Method:

Chocolate Decor:

For the wreath:

Place the melted chocolate in a piping bag with a number 2 piping tip.  Squeeze gently into circle shapes that are stacked atop each other.

For the chocolate stamp:

Place 1 teaspoon of melted chocolate onto baking paper, and when the chocolate goes tacky, press a wax seal on it.

Decorate with edible gold crisps or gold cachous.

Pecan-Cinnamon Streusel:

Preheat the oven to 160°C.  Either use a silicon mat, or line a sheet pan with baking paper. 

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl, then do one of three options to make this streusel or crumble.

One way is to rub the mixture between your fingers, another is to mix at medium speed with a beater, and the last is to form the dough into a ball and pass it through a grid wire rack.  As long as the end result is a crumbly mixture, any of those methods should work.

Space evenly apart on the sheet pan, if you can.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until crispy and golden.

Cool on the bench before removing into an airtight container.

Cocoa Sable Dough:

Sanding:

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the eggs.

With the beater attachment on a stand mixer, incorporate everything until it resembles wet sand.  This will take around 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the eggs, and mix until just combined. Don’t over mix.

In between two sheets of baking paper, roll out into a a flat surface with 2 to 2.5 mm thickness, then place in the fridge for an hour or two.

Sinking & Baking:

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Take the sable dough from the fridge and cut to fit into 8cm tart rings.  You can use muffin tins, but don’t forget to blind bake.  Chill in the fridge if it’s starting to get too soft before baking.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Coffee Mousse:

Day 1:

Place the chocolate in a large mixing bowl.

In a small sauce pan, boil the cream with the coffee beans, then simmer on low for 5 minutes.  This step can be skipped if you opt to use coffee-flavored chocolate instead.

Strain the cream and coffee mixture into the bowl of chocolate, and let it sit for a minute.

Mix slowly with a spatula, starting from the center, before making wider circles until fully emulsified.

Cling wrap the bowl, with the sheet directly on top of the mixture, then chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours.  Overnight would be best.

Day 2:

Retrieve the bowl of ganache from the refrigerator.

With the whisk attachment attached to the mixer, whip on high speed for around 1 to 2 minutes, just until it becomes a mousse. Don’t over-whip to avoid it becoming grainy.

Transfer into a piping bag, and keep cool in the refrigerator until needed.

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

Cream the softened butter with the honey and maple syrup in a small bowl.  If needed, microwave in 5-second increments, but don’t melt it.  Set aside.

Place the chocolate in a medium-sized mixing bowl.  Melt in the microwave or over a pot of simmering, hot water.  Then, set aside while boiling the cream.

In a medium-sized sauce pan, pour in the cream, add the vanilla extract, then bring to a boil.

Immediately remove from heat, and pour over the melted chocolate.

Starting from the center, stir with a spatula gradually from small circles, then into bigger ones when it begins to homogenize into a smooth ganache.

Cool down to 40°C, before adding the butter-syrup mixture.

Mix with a hand-held blender or rubber spatula until the ganache is shiny and lump-free.

Assembly:

Pipe or scoop the ganache into the sable tarts until half-filled.

Pipe the mousse on top of the ganache to fill up the tart shells.  Level excess mouse with a spatula.

Sprinkle the streusel to finish off, and decorate according to preference.