Raspberry Truffle Tart Tested Recipe

A Raspberry Truffle Tart begins with a biscotti crust. Although you could use homemade biscotti, for convenience sake, store bought biscotti will do just fine. This is a simple crust to make, just process the biscotti in a food processor until finely ground and then stir in the melted butter. The crust is baked in a moderate oven until golden brown. As the crust cools, make the truffle filling. The chocolate truffle filling takes hot cream and pours it over chopped semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate. Cream is the fat that rises to the top of whole milk. It has a smooth, satiny texture and is labeled according to its butterfat content (heavy to light). When making this filling, use 'Heavy' Cream or Heavy 'Whipping' Cream which means it has a 36 - 40% butterfat. Because of its superior flavor, I recommend using an organic brand of heavy whipping cream. The taste and quality of any chocolate dessert is also dependent on the type of chocolate. Since there are so few ingredients in this Raspberry Truffle Tart, the chocolate you pick is very important. Use a good quality semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate that you enjoy eating out of hand. When choosing a chocolate, always look for one that has a lovely shiny finish (a sign that the chocolate was cooked at the right temperature for the right amount of time) and one that has that wonderful 'snap' when you break it into pieces. My personal preference is a chocolate containing at least 58% cacao, as this will produce a filling that is firmer than one made with a chocolate that has a low cocoa butter content. There are many excellent brands on the market. Guittard, Valrhona, Scharffen Berger, Green & Black's Organic, Dagoba and Theo are some of my favorites.