Chocolate Strawberry Tartlets

5 from 8 votes

Chocolate Strawberry Tartlets

Chocolate Tartlets made with sweet pastry and a chocolate ganache, topped with fresh strawberries. These Mini Chocolate Strawberry Tarts can be made in stages over two days.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Chilling and Setting Time8

Total Time8 55

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Western

Diet: Halal, Low Salt, Vegetarian

Servings: tartlets

Calories: 368kcal

Author: Ayla Clulee

Ingredients

Sweet Pastry Dough (Pâte Sucrée)

1 stick unsalted butter (at room temperature) (125 grams)
¼ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
zest of ½ lemon
1 small egg
1 ⅔ cups plain white flour / all-purpose flour (200 grams)
pinch of salt

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy cream (double cream) (200 ml)
7 oz chocolate (half dark/half milk) (200 grams)

For Topping

10 strawberries
2 tablespoon flaked almonds (to garnish)
¼ teaspoon sea salt flakes (to garnish)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prepare the Sweet Pastry Dough (Pâte Sucrée)

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and creamy.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and mix for another 20 seconds.
Add the egg, vanilla paste, salt and lemon zest. Beat on low speed until the yolk is evenly incorporated and the mixture is clumpy, for about 30 seconds.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low speed for about a minute, until the flour is incorporated. The mixture will look like wet, clumpy sand.
Using your hand, lightly knead the dough into a ball inside the bowl. Do not overwork the pastry.
Turn the dough into a ball and roll it between two sheets of baking paper, about 3 mm (⅛ inch) thick. Place on a flat tray and leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
Take the dough out of the fridge, remove the baking paper and cut out 10 rounds of pastry using a small knife. A round or fluted cookie cutter works well here.
Gently slide the pastries into the small tart tins, lightly pressing the edge between the bottom and the sides to remove any air bubbles. Mine are 8 cm (3 inch) tins. Ease the pastry in rather than pulling it to fit. Stretching it is what makes shells shrink in the oven.
Prick the bottom of the pastries with a fork to stop them rising, then put them back in the fridge to rest for another hour.

Bake the Tartlet Shells

Preheat your oven to 170°C (340°F) and place the tart tins in the freezer in the meantime.
Line each tartlet shell with a paper cupcake case, baking paper, or heatproof cling film. Fill it right to the brim with baking beads, rice, beans, or chickpeas, which holds the sides up as the pastry sets. Ordinary cling film is not oven safe, so check the box.
Bake the shells for 15 minutes with the weights in, then lift out the lining and weights together. Give them another 8 to 12 minutes uncovered, until they are deep golden and dry to the touch.
Let the shells cool in the tins for 10 minutes before you move them. Hot, they are fragile and tear. If your tins have loose bases, push each one up from underneath. Rings just lift off. Out of a muffin pan, run a small palette knife around each shell and lift it straight up.
Leave them to cool completely before you fill them. Make the ganache in the meantime.

Prepare the Chocolate Ganache

Chop the dark chocolate and milk chocolate into small pieces and place them in a bowl.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering (not boiling), and pour it into the chopped chocolate. You want steam coming off the pan, not a rolling boil. Cream that is too hot is what makes a ganache grainy.
Leave the chocolate and cream without stirring for about one minute. Using a spatula, stir them from the middle outwards until the chocolate melts into the cream and comes together as a smooth ganache.
If it splits, a stick blender held right down in the bowl will usually bring it back.
Let the ganache cool for a few minutes, then pour it into the tartlet shells. Spread it level with the back of a spoon if it needs it.
Place the tartlets in the fridge to set. An hour firms the top, but a ganache this rich wants six hours or overnight to set all the way through.
Top them with strawberries just before you serve them.

Notes

Stop mixing as soon as the flour disappears. Worked too long, the pastry turns elastic and bakes hard.
Roll the pastry wider than you need and ease it into the tins. Pulling it to fit is the main reason shells shrink.
Rest the lined tins in the fridge for an hour, then freeze them while the oven heats up.
Bake 15 minutes with the weights in, then 8 to 12 minutes uncovered until deep golden and dry to the touch.
Cool the shells in the tins for 10 minutes, then push loose bases up from underneath. Hot shells tear.
Use cooking or couverture chocolate, not chocolate chips. Chips will not melt into a smooth ganache.
Changing the chocolate means changing the cream. This recipe is 1:1, equal weights of chocolate and cream, and the 70% dark in the blend keeps it firm. Swap the whole amount to milk chocolate and you need less cream, nearer half its weight. White chocolate needs about a third.
Chop the chocolate finely and bring the cream only just to a simmer, never a boil. If it splits, a stick blender held under the surface will usually bring it back.
Pour the ganache in while it is still warm for a smooth top, then give it six hours in the fridge or overnight to set properly.
Halve the strawberries and sit them cut side up, as close to serving as you can.
Empty shells keep at room temperature wrapped in cling film. Once filled, they go in the fridge.

Nutrition