The girls have reached the end of the first quarter, so their school gave them a day off. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun for all of us to work on ideas for spooky desserts that they’ll be able to share with their friends. It didn’t take a lot of arm twisting to convince them!
I decided that we should make a simple chocolate tart and decorate it with ghosts. The tart shell is a shortbread crust that I topped with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache. To enhance the flavor of the chocolate, I added a little coffee. I let the girls pipe the top with vanilla buttercream frosting and create faces using chocolate sprinkles. As an added bonus, this dessert is egg and nut-free. We’ll make smaller versions at the end of the month for when they share them with friends.
1. Info for Chocolate Ganache Tart (Halloween Ghost Dessert)
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 6
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache Tart (Halloween Ghost Dessert)
- 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ cup cold water
- 1-3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso coffee (optional)
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup vanilla buttercream frosting (see tips)
- 1 tablespoon colored sprinkles, as needed
3. Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Grease an 11-inch diameter non-stick tart pan (preferably a loose-bottomed one) with a thin layer of butter.
- Make sure the butter is chilled. Dice 7 tablespoons.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, 7 tablespoons cold diced butter, salt and sugar. Mix using the back of fork (or a stainless-steel pastry blender) until it forms sandy crumbs of butter, sugar and flour. Slowly add cold water and blend until it forms a dough. Do NOT over-mix. Cover with a towel and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Once chilled, transfer the dough onto a pastry board lined with a sheet of parchment paper (plastic wrap works fine too). Place another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough like a sandwich. Using a rolling pin, even out the dough to a 13-inch disk.
- Dust a little flour over the pie mold. Top the mold with the disk of dough. Press the dough into the edges of the mold (I use the tip of a chopstick). Prick the dough with a fork. Line the dough with a piece of parchment paper and top with ceramic pie weights (or dried beans).
- Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake at 375°F for about 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for an additional 20 minutes.minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature. Remove the pie weights and discard the piece of parchment paper. Set aside.
- For the chocolate filling (ganache): Over a pot of simmering water, create a ”double boiler” by placing a stainless-steel bowl filled with the semi-sweet chocolate. Make sure the bowl circumference is larger than the pot, so there isn’t any splatter of water in the chocolate. Slowly melt, stirring frequently. Turn off the heat; the chocolate will slowly finish melting when the cream is added.
- In a small saucepan, heat the cream. Bring to a near boil. Add coffee. Turn off the heat and immediately pour over the chocolate. Add 2 tablespoons butter. Stir well until the mixture is uniform. The texture should be smooth and shiny.
- Fill the tart shell with the warm chocolate ganache. Let cool to room temperature until the filling sets (about 1 to 2 hours).
- When the chocolate is set, place the vanilla buttercream frosting into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately onto the chocolate tart, starting with a small circle and finishing with a mound of frosting on top.
- Decorate the frosting with chocolate sprinkles, forming ghost faces (I used fish bone tweezers to place the sprinkles).
- Serve with hot tea or pumpkin spice lattes.
- Bon appétit!