Food: Puff Pastry Improvisation

Last weekend my friend Pam and I decided that we wanted to make something different for dinner last Saturday and when we asked our friends for suggestions their only instruction was something creamy. As a result we ended up making steaks with a delicious creamy asparagus tart on the side. An interesting twist occurred when it came to dessert, as you may know, Puff pastry comes with two sheets in the box.

So, I decided to experiment with the other sheet for dessert. I stole a chocolate truffle tart filling from Gourmet and poured that into the puff pastry shell once I had stacked the sides and then after baking I covered the whole affair with fresh raspberries. The wonderfully rich almost puddinglike filling combined with the light pastry and the sweet/tart berries created an amazing dessert that had people mmming through each bite. This was really easy to make and is also really an attractive dessert you can whip up in a hurry for a small dinner party.

Chocolate Truffle and Raspberry Tart (as adapted from Gourmet)
1/2 lb fine-quality bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 sheet of puff pastry
1/4 stick of butter Melted

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Lay out the puff pastry on a greased cookie sheet and cut 2 1/2 inch strips from each side of the pastry. Stack these strips on top of one another on each side using a pastry brush to apply melted butter underneath each strip to help them stick together.
- Bake the puff pastry for 7 minutes, remove and reduce heat to 350 degrees.
- Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, stirring until smooth, then remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.
- Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Once it is cooled whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture until combined well.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the slightly baked tart shell and bake at 350 for 25 minutes, until the filling is slightly puffed but trembles slightly when the cookie sheet is shaken gently.

NOTE: This amount of filling ended up being too much. I removed about ½ to ¾ of a cup of the filling and baked it separately in a ramekin.