Less Fat, Chocolate Truffle Tart

I know I promised you this tart last Thursday already, but it’s been a hectic weekend. But here it is now.

This is quite a show-stopper of a dessert as the dark, gooeyness of the chocolate is paired perfectly with the sharp and sweet strawberries. And I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate with strawberries? There’s not much to be said about this tart, it’s beautiful, tastes divine and will make any chocoholic weepy and appreciative! Plus, it’s a ‘lower in fat’ tart. The reason I don’t say low-fat, is because there’s still pastry, chocolate and butter in this tart. The only think that’s ‘low fat’ is the reduced fat cream I used. I’ve never, ever, made a dessert with reduced fat cream before. But it really worked and you couldn’t taste a difference.

Obviously using the best dark chocolate you can afford also helps with the ‘health’ factor of this tart. Very good, dark chocolate is packed full of anti-oxidants (like you need an excuse to eat it) and it’s lower in fat. Plus, it tastes SO much better. I have a bit of a weakness for the new Willie Harcourt chocolates available at Woolies. They are damn expensive but I’ve never tasted chocolate like it.

I’d also just like to mention that I use Clover’s reduced fat cream. I’ve used one other brand and it was grainy and very watery, plus, it had more fat. The clover one is smooth, quite thick and very luscious.

And then just a quick note about the pastry, I used a ready-rolled puff pastry here because it was already defrosted in my fridge and I was just too lazy to make shortcrust pastry, but shortcrust would work better.

Makes 1 standard size tart if using a quiche/tart dish (about 25cm)

1 ready-rolled short crust pastry / puff pastry
500g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100ml reduced fat cream
70ml unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

• Roll the pastry out and place in the tart dish. Pierce the bottom with a fork and bake at 180°c for 10 minutes until golden and cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
• Place the chocolate and cream in a microwaveable bowl and cook for 1 minute. Stir to combine and repeat until the chocolate has melted. You could also do this over a double boiler on the stove.
• Allow the mixture to cool down slightly and beat in the butter. The mixture will thicken slightly and it will be very glossy. At this stage, the mixture should resemble shop-bought custard. If it is thinner, melt more chocolate and beat it in.
• Pour the truffle mixture into the baked tart case and place in the fridge to set. This mixture takes at least 2-3 hours to set.
• Top with the sliced strawberries.