Chocolate Tart

To make the chocolate tart, start by preparing the shortcrust pastry: sift the all-purpose flour onto a pastry board, form a classic well, and pour the granulated sugar 1, the baking powder 2, and the softened butter 3 into the center. In this case, we used softened butter because it is kneaded by hand; otherwise, if you use a mixer to make the crumbly dough, you should use cold butter from the fridge.

Finally, add the egg yolks 4 and start kneading by hand quickly, gathering all the ingredients. Flavor with grated orange zest 5, continue kneading by hand quickly so as not to warm the dough too much with your hands, until you get a homogeneous dough ball 6.

Wrap the shortcrust pastry dough ball in plastic wrap 7 and place it in the refrigerator to firm up for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare the cream: chop the dark chocolate with a knife 8, then heat the milk in a saucepan 9.

In a separate bowl, beat the two whole eggs with a whisk, then add the granulated sugar 10 and continue beating until you get a light mixture. Finally, add the sifted starch 11, always mixing with the whisk until you get a lump-free mixture 12.

Pour the heated milk into the egg and starch mixture 13, put everything back into the saucepan 14, and thicken over moderate heat until you get a thick cream 15.

Turn off the heat and add the chopped chocolate 16, stirring until completely melted 17. Transfer the cream to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap in direct contact. Let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate. Now take the shortcrust pastry dough ball and hit it with a rolling pin if it is too hard, to make it more pliable 18.

Place it between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to a thickness of 1/8 to 3/16 inch (19-20); then turn the shortcrust pastry disk over, using the parchment paper, onto a perforated baking pan 9 inches in diameter 21; in this case, you won't need to butter and flour it, which you would need to do for any other pan.

Once the shortcrust pastry is laid out, remove the second sheet of parchment paper 22. Press the shortcrust pastry into the edges and bottom (to help you, you can roll a ball of shortcrust pastry in a piece of plastic wrap and use it to press on the bottom and edges). Roll the rolling pin over the pan to remove excess pastry and even out the edges 23, and prick the bottom with a fork 24.

Fill the tart with the now-cooled chocolate custard 25, level the surface with a spatula to distribute the cream evenly. Roll out the leftover shortcrust pastry with the rolling pin for the decoration, cut vertical 26 and horizontal strips to obtain squares of approximately 5/8 inch 27.

Apply the squares to the surface with the help of a knife 28, starting from the edge and creating a checkerboard pattern 29. Once finished, brush the shortcrust pastry with fresh liquid cream (this will give it a more golden hue) and bake the chocolate tart in a preheated static oven at 320°F for 50 minutes on the lowest rack. Once baking is complete, remove the tart from the oven, let it cool before removing from the pan and enjoying 30!