“Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world’s perfect food.”
Michael Levine
Sublime, sweet, seductive … words that can win over the most of us. Bittersweet chocolate paired with sweet scents of orange zest, topped with strawberries in a Digestive biscuit crust – eggless too. I think this might well be a dessert than can please one and all, chocolate lovers that is and tempt the non-lovers too! A Rich Bittersweet Chocolate Orange Strawberry Tart – festive and indulgent for the holiday season!! I made this special tart for Macy’s mBlog Recipe Showcase for which I was invited to share a favourite holiday recipe, with a story alongside. I have an old ‘Digestive biscuit connect’ which I shall share in a bit, though too late for the showcase. Life got the better of me, it’s been busier than usual, and I missed the deadline. Just back from a short ‘happy’ vacation to Tokyo, courtesy Mr PAB who was going there on work and gladly took me along! ’twas like a dream … a bit of which I shall attempt to share soon. In the meantime, this tart is served up here for you dear readers!! It was DELICIOUS and indulgent good! Digestive biscuis have been on my list of favourite biscuits forever, and my first choice always for biscuit bases for tarts and cheesecakes.There was a time, many moons ago, when working with an airline meant regular trips to London. That in turn meant bags full of delicious goodies including Digestives and Chocolate Digestives. The regular ones were my Mums favourite, though at the time I was quite partial to Walkers Shortbread too. Flight crew who flew overhead New Delhi from London to HKG would often radio in to chat while we manned station ops in the wee hours of the night, and would ask for ‘biscuit wishlists’ as they would stopover in Delhi on the way back. One particular flight crew, who I nicknamed Capt HobNob, made sure he always left a big parcel of HobNobs for me! Those were delicious days, post BOAC ones!!A few years later, shortbread ‘butter alarms‘, carbon footprints and locavore choices came along; an inherent consciousness crept in! Age does that to you I guess! I got ‘food educated‘ and sadly learnt that shortbread was delicious but oh-so-butter laden. My first choice then on were digestive biscuit. IMHO, they make me the perfect pie/tart crust as I don’t have the time to make graham crackers from scratch! I have used Digestives in Chocolate Quark Mousse Tartlets, Strawberry Chocolate Yogurt Mousse, No Bake Strawberry Quark Cheesecake, Apple Brown Sugar Meringue Pies, No Bake Upside Down Mango Quark Cheese PieWhat can I say about this beautiful tart … it was just too good to be true {if I may say so myself}. I have kept it eggless as a lot of local readers, being vegetarian, ask me for eggless desserts and bakes. Keeping them in mind, with the holiday season here, time for entertaining, guests, food & fun, I put this tart together. I also kept in mind easily available and mostly ‘there in the pantry‘ ingredients!I love the pairing of chocolate, orange and strawberry. Use a deep, rich, good quality chocolate here. Of course I was rather unsure when I cut it as I didn’t know if it would set well. Luckily for me, the proportions were good and the balance of the filling and tart shell just right. The taste?Délicieux!!
Eggless Rich Bittersweet Chocolate Orange Strawberry Tart with Digestive Biscuits
Sublime, sweet, seductive … words that can win over the most of us. Bittersweet chocolate paired with sweet scents of orange zest, topped with strawberries in a Digestive biscuit crust – eggless too.
Persons
8
Ingredients
Crust
150gm McVities Digestive biscuits
50gm whole almonds
50gm butter
Filling
200gm dark baking chocolate {55% couverture}
300ml low fat cream
Zest of 1 orange {keenu}
40gm unsalted butter
Topping
50-75gm fresh strawberries, sliced
Instructions
Crust
Run the digestive cookies and almonds in a blender until fine crumbs form.
With the motor running on low, pour in the melted butter until just combined.
Pat into loose bottomed tart tin, chill for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.
Preheat oven to 180C.
Bake chilled crust for 12-15 minutes. Cool completely.
Filling
Heat the 200ml cream on simmer in a heavy bottom pan until bubbles begin to form on the edges. Add the chocolate and butter and use a balloon whisk to blend until the butter & chocolate have melted completely. Add zest of 1 orange and the remaining low fat cream {use about 3/4 first, then the remaining if required; the filling should begin to look thick but still pour able}.
Cool to room temperature, whisk again and pour into cooled tart shell. Smoothen with an offset spatula and chill for 4-5 hours, preferably overnight.
Garnish with freshly sliced strawberries just before serving.
This recipe is on its way to IndiBloggers food contest …
As I go I wanted to share a little something; two places where PAB has recently been featured. One was in the November issue of Harper’s BazaarIndia {was thrilled to see lovely Meeta, Pamela and Mallika there too}, the article on food bloggers called “The Web Culinaries“,and the other a press feature at Lx World, ‘Cakes to Bake‘.
Don’t miss a post Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
