Chocolate Creme Tart with Deep Chocolate Crust

Chocolate Creme Tart with Deep Chocolate Crust




Crust:

Butter spray

2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (Oreo is one brand)

4 Tbl butter, melted



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch spring

form pan with butter spray. Pour crumbs in pan along

with melted butter. Combine the mixture with a fork

until well blended. Press the mixture with your

fingers along the sides of the pan up the edge about

an inch and along the bottom to make a crust. Bake for

6 minutes. Set aside to cool.



While it's baking, prepare the filling.



Filling:

12 oz. mascarpone cheese

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate cut into bits and melted.

(Use good

chocolate. Ghirardelli is one brand.)

2 tsp pure vanilla

2 Tbl strong brewed coffee



Mix all of these ingredients with a spoon or your

mixer on low speed.

You need to do this while the chocolate is HOT. Be

sure to keep mixing until the mixture is completely

brown and no white streaks of mascarpone remain. Now

pour the filling in the cooled crust and put the tart

in your refrigerator. It needs to be in the

refrigerator at least an hour to firm up. After an

hour you'll need to cover it with plastic wrap so it

doesn't get a film on top of the tart. You can do this

up to a day ahead. If you want to decorate your tart,

you can cut a decoration out of paper (stencil) or use

a commercially made stencil and place it on the tart

before serving and sprinkle on powdered sugar. Then

carefully remove the stencil. This will make a pretty

design. For the 4th of July I put a large star stencil

on top.



Here's the most important hint for good flavor. Take

the tart out of the refrigerator about an hour ahead

of serving. This tart tastes so much richer when it's

just slightly cool and not COLD.