Chocolate-Raspberry Tart with a Gingersnap Crust

I have been meaning to cook more this week, but there has been two problems. 1) Sunday was me and my hubbies 9th wedding anniversary. So I've been a little spoiled this last week. Sunday night my amazing mother-in-law took my kiddos, so Sunday night/Monday during the day me and Luke got to spend some much needed uninterrupted time together. Well, not really uninterrupted I guess. We went to breakfast at the amazing Cracker Barrel, and then we spent all day at The Renaissance Festival. It was so nice, but didn't give me a chance to do all I wanted to Monday.

And reason 2) It's Race Week!! Come Friday and Saturday I will be kicking my own butt running my race legs. I'm a little nerves :/ but I've prepared the best I can. I'm not nerves about my last 9 mile leg, it's my 2nd 6.3 mile leg that's got me questioning my sanity. It's all up hill! And being that I live in Phoenix, AZ, where everything is pretty flat, I haven't done much hill training. I know!! Pray for me!

No, it will be good though. My hubby has said he is going to come run that leg with me, being as it's gonna be around 10 o'clock at night that I will be running. My husband is a big safety buff. He doesn't apply this to himself being that he's a Lineman and is always working with high voltage. Or the fact that he is fighting other guys that are as big as he is, just for fun, but "I" must always be safe!! No, I'm not venting... Ok, maybe a little... But I am grateful that he is going to come run it with me. At least that will keep me a little bit distracted.

So, like I was saying before getting extremely off track, I haven't had much time to cook, so I decided to use my raspberries I got from Costco and make this beautiful tart (I had been craving something raspberry/chocolate since I had a little sample at The Renaissance Festival :). A couple of things to look out for before starting this recipe though. First, don't use bittersweet chocolate! Use semisweet. In my opinion the whole tart come out tasting so much more balanced with the semisweet chocolate, and the bittersweet chocolate just didn't give enough sweetness to accommodate the gingersnap crust.

Two, I used frozen raspberries for the puree and it worked out so well. Really, there is no need pay the extra cash to buy additional fresh raspberries when you're just gonna mangle them anyways. So I would say use a cup of frozen raspberries here instead of using your fresh ones.

And lastly, don't go far when letting this chill before adding the raspberries. I would check on it every 10 minutes. You want your ganache just a little firm, but it needs to still have some give to it. Trust me, I learned this the hard way. After my ADD took me to doing other things for an hour and a half, I had to let the ganache come back to room temperature before being able to get the raspberries to penetrate the ganache without severely deforming my poor little raspberries. But in the end it turned out delish! Gotta love raspberries and chocolate together!! Enjoy!

Chocolate-Raspberry Tart with a Gingersnap Crust
     Cooking spray for the pan
     About 40 gingersnap wafers (to yield 1 1/2 cups finely ground)
     1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
     3 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
     1/2 lb. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
     1 1/4 cups heavy cream
     Small pinch table salt

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Oil the sides and bottom of a 9 1/2-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.

In a food processor, grind the gingersnaps until they're the texture of sand.

Like so. Make sure to hold onto your food processor while running though. Gingersnap cookies are a little bit firmer then your regular cookie, and it's gonna take your processor a little muscle to get it to this stage.

Transfer to a bowl, add the melted butter, and work it in by squishing the mixture together with your hands.

Press into the sides and bottom of the oiled tart pan (this is easiest done with the bottom of a flat-bottomed measuring cup). Set the pan on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes to firm. Bake the tart crust on a baking sheet until fragrant, about 15 minutes, checking and rotating if needed to make sure the crust doesn't get too dark. Set on a rack to cool.

Meanwhile, pass 1 cup of the berries through a food mill fitted with a fine disk or force them through a fine sieve, mashing with a wooden spoon, into a medium bowl.

You'll have about 1/2 cup puree; set aside and discard the contents of the sieve.

Put the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat the cream just until boiling. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate; whisk to blend.

Stir in the raspberry puree and the salt.

Pour the mixture (called a ganache) into the cooled tart shell. Refrigerate until ganache is fairly firm, about 1 hour.

Arrange the remaining raspberries on top of the ganache; they should completely cover the surface. Chill until the ganache is completely firm, about 30 minutes, and serve.

Printable Recipe

Recipe from The Best of Fine Cooking: Chocolate Magazine.