Do you want to make a cake that’s as sweet as stunning and delicious as those seen on TV? With Ernst Knam’s recipe for the crostata it’s totally possible. A recipe reserved for chocolate lovers, which here plays the leading role to the Nth degree: a dark cocoa pastry casing that contains a soft chocolate center, prepared with custard and chocolate ganache. A true classic, which will win over the most demanding of guests and will drive children crazy. Below is the master's recipe, to be followed scrupulously to for an impeccable result. As you know, in the art of making desserts precision is fundamental.
Ernst Knam's chocolate crostata tart: the single-portion recipe
Chocolate Pastry
150 g butter, 150 g caster sugar, 1 big egg, 1 g vanilla, 6 g baking powder, 270 g flour, 30 g cocoa powder, 1 pinch of salt
Work by hand properly and possibly helping with a spatula, the butter cut into pieces together with the sugar, then add the egg, salt and a pinch of vanilla and knead it well until you get a homogeneous mixture. Add the yeast and flour, sieved together, and knead until you get a homogeneous and compact dough. Form a ball, wrap it in transparent cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before using it. Roll out the pastry to 2 mm and line 8 single-portion molds with a diameter of 7 cm in silicone or aluminum.
Custard cream
250 ml whole milk, 5 g vanilla Tahiti, 75 g yolks, 50 g caster sugar, 15 g corn starch, 8 g rice starch
Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the pulp of the Tahiti vanilla stick cut in half lengthwise, stir and put on the stove to warm up. Meanwhile, in a large bowl lightly beat the yolks with sugar and add the sifted powders working the mixture again. When the milk boils, dilute the mixture with a little hot milk and work it with a whisk. Then pour everything into the remaining hot milk. Cook for about 3 minutes, continuing to stir well with the whisk to prevent lumps from forming.
Chocolate Ganache
170 ml fresh cream, 230 g 60% dark chocolate
Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan and pour the chopped chocolate or cubes, mix with a whisk until the ganache is completely emulsified.
Chocolate cream
400 g custard, 400 g ganache cream
With a whisk mix the custard with the chocolate ganache to obtain a smooth cream.
Assembling the cake
Place the chocolate custard on the bottom of the shortbread pastry. Decorate each single portion with strips of shortbread pastry and bake the cake at about 170 °C for about 40 minutes.