Spiced Black Bottom Tart With Kumquat & Tangelo Mousse
Makes one 4.5” tart as seen
I like desserts.
I like single-serve, small-batch desserts even more.
But what I like the most are desserts with long, windy names that take longer to finish saying than eating.
ingredients
GROUP A: TART SHELL
138 g blitzed cracker crumbs (this is a great way to get rid of any uneaten random bits of crackers at the bottom of the packet; I used a combination of salted pretzels, whole wheat crackers, fruit & nut crackers, Biscoff, & ginger snaps)
44 g unsalted butter, melted
GROUP B: BLACK BOTTOM
54 g unsweetened dark chocolate
20 g granulated sugar
50 g heavy cream
1/8 tsp baking spice (recipe here)
Pinch of garam masala
1/4 tsp instant espresso
GROUP C: MOUSSE
85g whole milk
52g heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
32g granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
8g cornstarch
1 egg white (don’t discard the yolk! Use it to make some fruit flavoured curd)
7g salted butter
1 small tangelo
5 - 6 kumquats
42g very cold heavy cream
method
Tart shell: Pour the melted butter over the cracker crumbs and mix well to form an almost-unified “dough”. Line the bottom surface and walls of a mold of your choice with parchment paper and fill it with the cracker dough. Level it out using the back of a spoon or a small ladle, and leave it to solidify in the freezer till it’s time to assemble the tart.
Chocolate ganache: Chop the dark chocolate into small pieces and place into a medium bowl. In a saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil, while stirring continuously. Add the spices, sugar, and instant espresso at this stage and stir to incorporate fully. Once the cream has reached boiling point, pour the it over the chopped chocolate and stir/whisk it with a fork to dissolve the chocolate completely. Set in the refrigerator to chill, at least 4 hours.
Citrus mousse: (can be made up to 2 days in advance): Whisk the salt, cornstarch, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and egg white. Whisk well again. Slice the tangelo into 1/4” thick rounds. Quarter the kumquats.
Add the milk, 52 grams of heavy cream, and citrus pieces to a saucepan and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. The mixture will curdle slightly at this point - DO NOT panic! Then, increase the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer till little bubbles form on the surface. At this point, pour a bit of this mixture into the egg white mix and whisk that continuously to prevent any curdling. Pour this new mix back into the saucepan, and keep whisking for another minute.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into another bowl. Whisk in the butter till completely dissolved. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap in such a way that the wrap sticks to the surface of the custard mixture. Refrigerate to cool for at least 2 hours. After cooling time is up, whip the remaining 42 grams of heavy cream to moderately stiff peaks (the peaks don’t have to have a very defined pointy shape, but the mixture should not fall out of the bowl when turned upside-down). Fold this whipped cream into the cooled custard base. Transfer to a squeezy bottle or piping bag fitted with a tip, till it’s time to assemble your dessert (or simply scoop with a spoon).
Assemble the tart: Carefully take out the tart shell from the mold. Fill the base with the chocolate ganache, then scoop the mousse over it. Decorate with edible flowers and dried citrus peels, if desired. Refrigerate for 15 minutes before cutting into it. Enjoy!
Recipe for the mousse adapted from Ruth Tam’s Vanilla Bean Mousse.
