merrifood

Dark chocolate pretzel tart

Posted by merrifood on March 3, 2013 · 1 Comment 

The sweet and salty combination is my ultimate trump card in baking that I use to win people over.  If you like any type of baked good, it is my firm belief that if sea salt is added you will then love it exponentially more.  This dessert immediately caught my eye when I was doing my usual tastespotting browse of the day, and I made it when I had an inaugural dinner party at my apartment.

This tart is really easy to make but just requires some time in the fridge to set, so you could make it the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight or make it in the afternoon if you are having people over that night.  It is quite rich due to the fact that it’s essentially just chocolate with an amazing biscuit base.  I have always been really into dark chocolate covered pretzels so this was a perfect dessert for me.  I love how elegant it looks despite being so easy to make!  if you have a tart pan it will look even better – I didn’t, but it was still quite classy.

Dark chocolate pretzel tart (adapted from Shades of Cinnamon)

Ingredients (serves 10-12)

120g digestive biscuits (if you live in the U.S., just substitute graham crackers)
120g small pretzels,  plus 18-20 extra pretzels to decorate
180g butter (this is ~, melted
375g dark chocolate, finely chopped or grated
1 3/4cups (~300ml) pouring cream – heavy cream is probably better but I always cringe at how artery-clogging it is so usually use light cream even though it won’t set quite as well
75g extra dark chocolate for dipping pretzels

In a food processor or blender , combine pretzels and biscuits and process until they are fine crumbs.  Melt the butter and add to the biscuit mix.  Then press the biscuit mixture into a lightly greased tray – I used a square pan, but you could use a tart tin or a rectangular tart pan. Refrigerate for an hour.

Put the dark chocolate (I didn’t grate mine, I am lazy…but promise it tasted fine) into a double boiler with the cream, or just put both ingredients in a pot and turn on low heat.  Make sure the cream doesn’t boil and keep a very close eye on it, stirring frequently.  When it’s all melted and looks completely smooth, set aside and have it cool for 10 minutes.  Then pour the chocolate onto the biscuit base, and refrigerate for 3+ hours, until firm.  It needs to be kept refrigerated as it will melt if you keep it at room temperature for too long, but even with using light cream, the tart became fairly firm.

Melt the extra chocolate in a microwave or in a double boiler, and then dip extra pretzels into it.  Decorate the tart with the chocolate coated pretzels and refrigerate again for another hour.

Pretzels and biscuits all crushed up starting to absorb that melted butter

Pressed into the pan and ready to go into the fridge

Melting the chocolate and cream – so appetizing

Poured over the biscuit base

And topped with pretzels!

I think this is an excellent ratio of chocolate to biscuit – about 60/40 chocolate to biscuit.  The dark chocolate covered pretzels also tasted even better once removed from that gooey chocolate layer…

This tart was the kind of amazing where I found myself taking a fork to it after the guests left.  Per usual, not ashamed to admit this.  It’s a great dessert for your next casual dinner party!