Livin La Vita Coca: "Can I lure you to the dark side?"

I was not going to post this because while piping the tiramisu and the chocolate mousse rosettes, it started to melt dangerously! To crown it all, when I removed the baked tart shell from the pan, it snapped in half ha! ha! My guests were already arriving and I had no time to do my magic patching, but I did indeed "glue it together" with the melted chocolate. Has this ever happened to you just before your guests arrived? Oh well I cannot always be perfect , so please just envision that the tart is to your satisfaction. My guests on the other hand polished off the tart in no time, while I took almost all morning making it! One of our guests, who is your regular comedian said that he felt extremely musical after eating this tart and he did however burst into song!

I consider myself an accomplished home cook who pretty much understand the essential chocolate tenet and that is to keep it as unadulterated as possible, but I always succumb to aberration because guess what I am not a purist! To me the world is my oyster but the sky not necessarily the limit. I have joined dark chocolate mousse and tiramisu together in holy matrimony and boy! oh boy! are they making sweet music together. If nothing else will, this dessert will lure you to the dark side, 70% dark that is!

The tart shell:

• 1 c MacArthur's all purpose flour
• pinch kosher salt
• 1/3 c Dutch unsweetened cocoa
• 1 stick unsalted European butter
• 1/4 c organic sugar crystals
• 1( Egg lands Best) egg
• 2 t vanilla ( I love the one from Santo Domingo)
• 3 T organic heavy cream
  

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. This mixture should be a pale yellow color and sugar should be dissolved( 10 mins). Sift the dry ingredients and alternate by adding this and the cream to the egg mixture. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out between 2 pieces of parchment and line a 13x31/2 inch tart pan with removable bottom. Prick the tart all over with fork so that the pastry does not bubble up. Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for twenty minutes.

The ganache:

Steam 1 cup heavy cream and add 2 t instant coffee granules . Break up a dark Lindt( 3.5 oz) and 3 oz milk choc and add the hot cream. Let stand for about 4 mins and then whisk until smooth.Use this to pipe your rosettes. Tip: Lay tiramisu and this ganache side by side on some plastic wrap, fold the plastic ends over one another and place in the piping bag. This will keep the piping bag clean.

Tiramisu:

I had some tiramisu left from the recipe (link above), so I decided to put it into the chocolate shell. Tip: Brush the tart with melted chocolate first, this will prevent the tart from getting soft because of the moisture of the tiramisu. Also set the tart in the refrigerator again in order for the tiramisu to set up in the tart shell. Pipe your rosettes and decorate with the guitars and the other musical instruments.

Musical Instruments:

Here you are going to have to use the bain-marie method( water bath) again to melt the chocolate and some cocoa butter and just pour into the molds and cool overnight in refrigerator. I buy the cocoa butter in bulk( Edible kind) which I also use in my soap creations. Or just make your own chocolate decorations.

All that work and gone in sixty....

Nazarina A.

Thank you for visiting, comments welcome.