chocolate tart topped with raspberries

what's dessert without some chocolate?

and just like the crazy cheesecake incident, this lovely chocolate tart had its issues too. i am by now means a tart expert. i still haven't learned what doughs go best with what fillings. heck, i still haven't even learned how to make any dough with confidence and consistency. i'm trying out different pie and tart dough recipes so i can try to learn what works best for me.

so saturday night (yes, the infamous saturday night) i proceeded to make the tart dough as outlined in this recipe. it seemed impossibly crumbly and dry but i already added extra ice water. but i balled it up anyway, tried to have a little faith and waited until the next afternoon.

well, i should have known better. i take it out to roll and the crumbs just plop out. i try to shape it a bit, roll it, swear at it ... but it just insisted on doing its thing, which was basically become a dry, crackly, crumbly mess. mind you, this is now about 2:00pm and our friends are supposed to arrive at in three hours.

but like i said, i'm proud and i'm stubborn. there was no way i wasn't going to make this! martha hasn't let me down (besides her ill-placed tragic faith in paper towel tubes) so i decided to make the tart dough from her baking handbook. yes, with only a couple hours until dinner time, i decide to make a new tart dough, sheesh i'm crazy! i didn't watch it carefully and it turned a little wee brown. but whatever, with chocolate heaven in there who's gonna complain about a little crunchy crust?

a slice for you, a slice for me

so all was saved, in the end. i did end up making tyler florence's chocolate filling, but i made it 7 oz bittersweet and 3 oz semisweet. the end result was a velvety smooth, simply rich, knock your chocolate socks off, decadent slice of deliciousness.