Chocolate & Passionfruit Brulee Tart

It's funny that there are so many passionfruit recipes on a blog owned by someone who has never really enjoyed passionfruit. I would blame my best friend Asian Gaga, who loves passionfruit-flavoured desserts and I made this tart for her birthday, but this time around she specifically told me I didn't have to do anymore passionfruit desserts. But I was still drawn to it, for some unknown reason. Asian Gaga mentioned how much she loves the brûlée tarts at Bourke St Bakery (who doesn't?) and so I toyed with the idea of trying it with a chocolate shell instead, similar to the lovely lime version that Karen does. And I really do love the combination of chocolate with passionfruit. Two very strong flavours that can still stand up well when placed together.

For the pastry I adapted a recipe from BraveTart, it's a really fantastic recipe. Since I was making one large tart shell I erred on the side of caution and added an extra egg yolk to the mixture to make sure it did fall apart of me when I rolled out the pastry. I am really clumsy with pastry, which is probably why you don't see a huge amount of pastry recipes on this blog. I'm a messy baker. But feel free to use Stella's awesome original recipe, especially if you're making smaller individual tarts instead. It's so good, even the raw pastry dough tastes amazing. That is always a good sign.

Unfortunately for you guys I didn't have the heart to cut into this particular birthday present. I thought it would be just a little too harsh to hand over a broken tart to my best friend, especially when the best part about a brulee is that first crack through that thin layer of toffee on top. But I can show you some flamey action shots of me torching the sugar. Yeah! Don't try this at home kids; holding a blowtorch in one hand and trying to focus with a camera is not fun. I really need to get myself a tripod.

 

I love my blowtorch! Since I left Asian Gaga with her birthday tart I didn't get to try a piece myself but I can definitely tell you that all the separate elements tasted great, so fingers crossed the tart as a whole tasted good too.

Ooh random change of subject; thanks to Women's Fitness Magazine for the mini-mention in their June issue (sorry about the crappy phone photo).  Pretty sure my gummy bear cake is the exact opposite of women's fitness heehee but it was super nice of them to give a shoutout!

The filling recipe is adapted from the original brulee tart recipe from Bourke St Bakery. It's a little time consuming with all the whisking and chilling but totally worth the effort. I actually ended up with just a little less filling than I wanted, so I have increased the amounts for you. I will definitely want to try this recipe again as smaller individual tarts. If you do plan to try that out I would use BraveTart's original tart shell recipe and then double the amount of filling described.

Chocolate & Passionfruit Brûlée Tart

(chocolate tart shell adapted from BraveTart, filling adapted from Bourke St Bakery)

For the tart dough:

105g (3.75 ounces/about 1/2 cup) sugar

35g (1.25 ounces) brown sugar

Scrapings from half a vanilla bean

1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

1/4 tsp salt

125g (4.5 ounces) butter, room temperature

3 egg yolks

255g (9 ounces) plain/all purpose flour, sifted

50g (1.75 ounces) cocoa powder, sifted

For rolling: 30g (1oz) cocoa powder + 30g (1oz) icing/powdered sugar sifted together

With a hand or stand mixer, combine sugars, vanilla bean seeds, coffee powder, salt and butter on medium speed. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly combined, but by no means light and fluffy. Add in the yolks, one at a time then reduce speed to low. Add in the flour and cocoa powder all at once and mix until homogenous. If you’re comfortable with dough and a pin, you can roll it right away. Otherwise, form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate about 15 minutes to make the it easier to handle.

You can refrigerate the dough for up to a week or freeze for several months. Before rolling, set the dough out and let it slowly come to room temperature over a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350° F) and lightly grease a 22cm loose bottomed tart tin. Dust the counter with the prepared cocoa/powdered sugar mixture. Don’t use flour, it will toughen the dough and dull the richness of the chocolate color. Roll to 0.75cm (1/3") thickness.Carefully set dough over the tart shell and use your thumbs to press the dough into the corners of the pan. Press the overhanging dough against the edges of the tart pan to trim off the excess and leave the dough flush with the edges. Dock tart lightly with a fork. The dough is extremely forgiving and can be rerolled two or three times, you should be able to press any cracks together to mend them.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. After 10 minutes or so, check on the tart. If it has formed an air bubble; use a skewer to gently poke a small hole in the bubble to deflate it. Continue baking until the tart is firm and dry to the touch. Cool in tin for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Shell can be stored in an airtight container overnight.

For the passionfruit brûlée filling:

430ml (about 1 3/4 cups) pure/pouring (whipping) cream (35% fat)

Remaining 1/2 vanilla bean (leftover from the pastry), split lengthways

6 egg yolks

50g g (about 1/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar, plus plenty for burning

Fresh pulp of one passionfruit

Place cream, passionfruit pulp, scraped vanilla bean seeds and vanilla pod in a small saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside. Place the egg yolks in a stainless steel/heatproof bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add the sugar and continue whisking for about 30 seconds, or until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the slightly cooled cream mixture through a fine sieve, discarding the vanilla bean, then pour the cream into the egg yolk mixture, stirring well to combine. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water, and continue stirring with a whisk for about 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and thick, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly with a rubber spatula. It is important to keep stirring at all times or the mixture will curdle. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk briskly for about 2 minutes to cool it quickly. Over the next 1 hour, whisk the mixture every 10 minutes until cooled. Use a rubber spatula to clean the sides of the bowl thoroughly and place plastic wrap directly on top of the mixture; refrigerate overnight to set. Pour mixture into baked tart shell, using a palette knife or offset spatula to smooth the top so that it is flush with top of the tart shell. If you wish you can decorate the surface of the filling with a few extra passionfruit seeds. Chill in the fridge for a further 4 hours. When ready to serve, sprinkle an even layer of sugar over the top of the filling and burn with a blowtorch. Try to do this as close to serving time as possibly, sugar will eventually melt over the course of a day and will lose the crisp layer of toffee.