dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust.

I've been looking forward to sharing this one: a decadently, perfectly chocolate tart in a subtle gingersnap crust. After eyeing it longingly on smitten kitchen for weeks, I made it to bring to a southern-cooking feast orchestrated by L., fabulously talented herself in the art of the pie/tart. Even when it doesn't come at the end of a meal that includes fried catfish, butter beans, okra, and hush puppies (!), this is a tart to serve in small slices. The filling falls somewhere between flourless chocolate cake and a brownie, with just a hint of chocolate mousse: rich, dense, and close-your-eyes-to-savor-it chocolatey.

Without a doubt, I'll be making this again. However, I'm looking forward to tweaking the crust a little bit. (The filling is wonderful as it.) I think it might still work with less butter, since the moistness of the crust almost overwhelmed its gingery taste AND, more importantly, the tart was sitting in a small pool of melted butter on its baking sheet when I took it out of the oven. I'm also wondering about mixing chopped crystallized ginger right into the crust, rather than sprinkling it on the top of the cooked tart as the original recipe in Bon Appetit suggests. I'll report back; in the meantime, this one is too good not to share!

Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust
Bon Appetit by way of smitten kitchen

Crust:
8 oz. gingersnap cookies, coarsely broken (*I used Trader Joe's Ultimate Ginger Cookies - yum.)
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Filling:
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.

2. Finely grind the ginger cookies in a food processor (yields 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 c.). Then add melted butter and process until moistened.



3. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of 9-in. tart pan with removable bottom. (*Using a hint from smitten kitchen, I used one of my measuring cups to pack in the mixture so that it formed a wonderfully straight and uniform crust. So handy! My measuring cups are All-Clad, so they have a flat bottom and straight sides; if you have rounded measuring cups, I assume that a water glass would also do the trick.) Place pan on rimmed baking sheet. (*Important! See note about melted butter above! Imagine melted butter all over your oven! Ick!)



4. Combine finely chopped chocolate and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Whisk over low heat until chocolate is just melted and smooth. Remove pan from heat.

5. Whisk egg yolks, egg, sugar, flour, pepper, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl to blend.

6. Very gradually whisk (*slightly cooled) chocolate mixture into egg mixture until smooth and blended.

7. Pour chocolate filling into crust.



8. Bake until filling puffs at the edges and center is softly set, about 30 mins. Transfer to rack. Cool in pan 20 mins., then gently remove pan's sides and cool tart completely.



Note: this can be made 1 day ahead. Cover the cooled tart and refrigerate it, then bring it back to room temp. before serving.