A simple chocolate shortbread
Amidst a snowstorm, one of the most chaotic days in weeks, and a short list of “things to do” early this morning that are just complete at 4pm, I sit to write this late prairie Winter afternoon with the purest of pleasures. This food blog is the ultimate reprieve for me. Just look at those cute, dignified, yet rustic dark chocolate shortbread tart shells. If they had cheeks, I’d want to pinch them!
Berry sugar is what I always use in my shortbread and for sugaring flowers. It is a superfine crystal, and gorgeous to have on hand. It glistens like the snow on a sunny day. Now, why this recipe? I have a positive negative fetish on a cookie tray. My pucker-up nose-wrinkling lemon curd tart is a family favourite and needed a partner on the tart tray this year. The chocolate crust was an easy think and can be used for many recipes. I have made more than my share of Chocolate Shortbread Crust recipes, and this is my favourite. I believe it is a combination of a few.
This is one recipe I insist on using Valrhona cocoa for. The quality of the cocoa in a recipe with so few ingredients makes a considerable difference. I use my Thermomix for everything, but you can use another appliance to make this pastry crust.
The fudgy texture of the dough was a bit disconcerting. I kept wanting to eat it, but fought it off. Seriously, when making shortbread, the dough is disgusting, but the cookie is divine. This dough was surprisingly divine. Really tasty stuff.
Prepared, passionate and perseverent I shaped every shell into the three miniature pans. Thirty-six in all. Takes about two hours of television. Less if the show isn’t very good.
I used to spend hours and hours trying to form the edges of these shells by hand, but it really doesn’t make such a difference. The first photo shows how rustic they look close up, and the last will show you how refined they look when filled. Works for me.
The shells are fragile when warm, and this method works the best: Place a flat surface over the pan, invert it, and lift it off. Voilà! They will regain a certain amount of strength once at room temperature.
So, let’s hear what you have used this recipe for. Salted Caramel Tarts was my first recipe with this Chocolate Shortbread Crust. I will add links as I use this recipe to make others with it and would love for you to do the same.
Chocolate Shortbread Pie Crust
Think about all of the fillings this crust could hold!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , softened
- ½ cup superfine granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup unsweetened Valrhona chocolate powder
Instructions
-
Blend butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl with a fork until combined well
-
Sift flour, corn starch, and cocoa into butter mixture and blend with fork until mixture forms a soft dough
-
For 2 medium tarts: Divide dough in half and pat out with floured fingertips into 2 (6 to 6 ½ inch) rounds on an ungreased large baking sheet
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Chill dough, uncovered, until firm, about 30 minutes.
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Press into tart shells; prick or dock all over inside, ensuring sides are not too thin
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For miniature tarts: Refrigerate dough; taking small ball, pat by hand into miniature muffing tin cups
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Refrigerate 15 minutes before baking
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Bake in convection oven at 325°F for 7 minutes
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Freeze in air tight container until ready to use
Recipe Notes
This recipe will alternatively make 8 regular individual French Tart Shells or one large one.
G’day They look delightful Valerie!
Who could go for one right now? ME! 🙂
Cheers! Joanne
Valerie, these look wonderful and I’m getting ideas as I read. How about baking a dollop of vanilla cheesecake filling in them, then topping with a fresh raspberry and a tiny whipped cream rose? Or a scoop of stirred custard and a red currant jelly glaze? Coconut cream pudding, with toasted fresh coconut shaved atop them? A small scoop of coffee ice cream? Chilled maple mousse, made with our own Canadian maple syrup? Homemade mandarin sorbet with a drizzle of the darkest chocolate? The possibilities are endless, thank you so much for this recipe. Brendi
Love every single one of your ideas, Brendi!
Did you see the invitation to the Christmas Cake Tasting? I would love you to come over to join the fun!
🙂
V
I missed the invitation Valerie, I’ll go look for it now.
🙂 V
Those look great Valerie! Now I’m not sure what’s going into my oven today….cinnamon buns or these tarts?
Can never go wrong with cinnamon buns, either – but get these on that list.
🙂
V
Good Morning Val.. Yummy love to bake today..but I’m in the mist of packing..off to Mexico for two wonderful weeks tomorrow morning. So no baking until I get back.. I will not miss this Alberta and weather we are getting today brrrr thought it was suppose to be nice lol..
Germaine
Vanja and I are to be headed to Mexico for a week at the end of February. We will have to compare notes! Have fun!
:)V
Chocolate and shortbread are two of my favorite things. The only thing I’ve ever used as a crust which was somewhat similar was filled with lemon and topped with shaved chocolate. Love the idea of a caramel filling!
FIlled with lemon. That is novel. My palate is clearly far too conservative!
🙂
V
Hi Valerie – this recipe looks delicious, I’m hoping to recreate it this weekend! Just a quick question – once you’ve made the dough, did you refridgerate it once, then remove, press into tins, and refridgerate again? Slightly confused by the steps!
Thanks,
Emily
I did both, yes. It is easier to work with cold, then must be docked and refrigerated again before baking. Let me know how it goes, Emily!
🙂
V
Emily
I send you an e-mail – but for others:
I refrigerated at both times. I made the dough, refrigerated it to form balls and to push into the pan. Then docked the shells and refrigerated again before baking.
🙂
Valerie
Hi Valerie!
Thanks for your response. My baking skills are obviously not up to scratch, or I may blame the British ingredients getting lost in translation – it was a bit of a disaster! The dough looked great, I chilled it, then put it into the tin, then chilled again (so far so good), but then when cooking the dough bubbled up, and lost its shape completely! Once done they were very sandy and crumbly, so not much good. They stayed together somewhat once cooled down, but not sturdy enough to hold anything!
I decided to make the most of a bad situation and just crumble them over ice-cream with the toffee sauce! However, my bad day in the kitchen struck again with the toffee sauce, initially the sauce looked wonderful, but I left it to cool for a bit and when I came back, it had hardened and split so the melted butter was pooling inside the pan! That said, I drained off the butter, and the sauce had turned into fudge that I could cut into pieces! Obviously still delicious, but definitely not the intention haha.
Maybe I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this one 🙂
Emily
Oh, Emily!
This is such a tragedy and not what anyone writing recipes and a food blog wants to hear. I am so sorry that this has happened to you. The grit is completely unusual as the shells are so buttery. I cannot put my finger on what happened. You docked the shells, refrigerated them and put them in a hot oven. All should have been well. They are rustic, anyway – you saw mine – yet the look lovely filled and taste very delicious. Another person has made them and they worked for them, yet I wish I was closer so I could assist. The toffee sauce – yes, as I mentioned you do have to pour it before you let it sit. It should not split, as I reheat it in the microwave or in hot water and simply stir it up for my sticky toffee pudding and it is lovely and velvety. But, it would not set the same way it did on the tarts after a reheat, That can only happen the first time it is cooked after cooling a little bit, and the sauce still being quite warm… warm enough to pool on the top of the tart.
Do you live in Edmonton? If so, you are invited over when I make them again next year.
🙂
Valerie
Thanks Valerie. I may try them again one day if I’m feeling brave. I live in London (England not Ontario!), otherwise I’d definitely pop round to see how it should be done. I look forward to trying out some more of your recipes though, no doubt I’ll find some that work for me!
Hope you had a lovely chocolate-filled Easter!
Emily
You, too, Emily!
I sure laughed when I read this. London Ontario is a 4 hour plane ride from where I live in Canada.
Hugs
V
We are having a wedding here over Easter and my new to be daughter in law & son love peanut butter & chocolate cheesecake. She found a mini recipe that looks adorable and that the filling is great. The crust, not so much. HOWEVER, this looks like it will be perfect. Am going to try it out this afternoon.
Wonderful, Anda!
Let me know how it turns out for you!
Sincerely,
Valerie
I do have a question (am in the midst of making my first batch) The ingredients list calls for a 1/4 cup cornstarch. However, this does not appear in the “Instructions” section. I made the assumption that I should sift the cornstarch in w/ the flour & cocoa. Was that correct?
Also, thanks so much for introducing me to Valrhona cocoa. It smells wonderful! I decided to order this (Yeah, Amazon) before I made the shortbread.
Thanks for letting me know, Anda!
Recipe corrected!
You did the right thing.
Sincerely and with appreciation,
Valerie
Okay, just finished my second batch of these. Now understanding the “flip over the tins onto a flat surface direction” so I was going to do that.
But… Are they supposed to look raw after the 7 minutes in the convection oven? I didn’t trust that so baked them longer. They just crumpled in to VERY tasty crumples. Am I supposed to leave them at the raw looking stage?
Not at all, Anda!
So sorry this happened to you. They ARE fragile, but should look baked and when turned over, hold their shape.
How did the first batch turn out?
🙂
Valerie
First batch (mixed by hand, conventional oven, did not understand the flip over technique because of the missing pics) = delicious crumbles
2nd batch (used cuisinart, convection oven, followed all directions) = delicious crumbles
I really want to use these as a base for the peanut butter/ choco mini cheesecakes. The taste is soooo great.
We had (good) friends over and I just did a common plate of the 1st batch crumbles w/ the cheesecake topping & the drizzled chocolate & toffee peanut garnish & handed out 4 forks. It was all gone in a very short order.
Do you have any suggestions at all??? I am usually quite an accomplished cook. Would love to get this right.
OR do you have any suggestions for producing a sturdy mini-bite platform?
LOVE my soon to be daughter-in-law and would like to give her the dessert she is dreaming of.
Send me your phone number and we could go over the recipe and discuss.
🙂
Valerie
4049154262
thank you so much for your attention!
Anda
I will call you on Wednesday when I return home from Palm Desert.
🙂
What time will work for you?
Valerie
I make a shortbread crust for my cheesecake (instead of graham cracker crust). Can I use this chocolate shortbread crust for that?
Of course, Geraldine. These crusts are finicky but make and take the time and it will be delicious! Let me know how it goes!
🙂
Valerie