Chocolate Truffle Strawberry Tarts

A dessert fit for strawberry growers!

Strawberry season is in full swing again here in New Zealand and as much as I love them it is a pretty hectic time in our household. P works together with a group of growers selling their produce into retail stores so it’s non stop from September to February trying to sell 100s and 100s of crates a day! It does have it’s benefits of course, we get our strawberries straight from the field and they are always the best quality.

This dessert was created for a dinner the growers were hosting for their customers and we wanted to show their product off to it’s full potential. I also made a strawberry mousse cake which I will post shortly.

What I love about this dessert is that it is quite easy to make but looks quite decadent and richness of the chocolate is balanced with the fresh berries.

Ingredients – chocolate pastry

• 110g Butter
• 180g flour
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg

Ingredients – tart filling

• 200g 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 250g strawberries, hulled & sliced
• Additional whipped cream for decorating
• Chocolate shavings for decoration

Method – pastry

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
2. Grease and flour a loose bottom, 22cm, flan tin.
3. Place the flour, butter, sugar, cocoa in a bowl.
4. Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
5. Add the egg and bring dough together.
6. Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
7. Roll out pastry to fit bottom & sides of tin, prick bottom of pastry case.
8. Place a piece of greaseproof paper over the bottom and sides of the pastry shell and fill the case with dry beans, rice or lentils.
9. Place the tart shell in the over with the dried beans and bake ‘blind the shell for 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and remove the greaseproof paper and beans and return the pastry to the oven.
11. Bake for a further 10 minutes.
12. The first baking with the beans is to prevent the pastry side slipping down with no filling in the case. The second baking is to crisp the shell.
13. Allow to cool.

Method – tart filling

1. Bring cream to almost boiling point.
2. Add chopped chocolate and stir gently until melted and silky smooth.
3. Pour into cooled tart cases and allow to cool and set before decorating.
4. Decorate with sliced strawberries, whipped cream & chocolate.