Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberry Sauce

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberry Sauce is the ultimate dessert for the chocolate lovers in your life. The decadently rich ganache filling, made with both semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, is truffle-like in its consistency and delivers intense chocolate flavor with each bite. Combined with the crisp almond-flavored biscotti crust sweetened with brown sugar, this show-stopping dessert is impossible to resist. 

Add a drizzle of scrumptious raspberry sauce, and you have an unforgettable restaurant-quality dessert that is super easy to make and perfect for showing the special people in your life how much you care.

Here’s what’s in it:

• Semi-Sweet and bittersweet chocolate: this recipe uses a combination of both semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate. There are only two ingredients in the ganache, and it’s important to use the best brand of chocolate baking bar you can find. Baking bars are formulated to melt quickly and smoothly. On the other hand, chocolate chips are often coated with stabilizers to help keep their shape and will not melt as smoothly.
• If you can’t find baking bars and have to use chocolate chips, try and use the best quality chips you can find. I used Ghiradelli semi-sweet chips in this recipe, and they worked fine. Do not use regular chocolate candy bars or melting wafers.
• Heavy cream: or heavy whipping cream: is essential for a smooth, rich ganache. This is not the time to save calories and substitute half-and-half, whole milk, or skim milk. 
• Biscotti: this recipe uses biscotti as the base for the crust. Biscotti is a sweet, dry, crunchy, almond-flavored Italian biscuit or cookie that has been baked twice. 
• Brown sugar: adds a little more sweetness to the crust, and the sugar also helps to bind the crust together when it is baked. 
• Unsalted butter: brings the crushed biscotti and brown sugar together to form a delicious crunchy tart crust. 
• Seedless raspberry jam or preserves: I like to add raspberry jam to the crust before adding the ganache and also love to pour some raspberry sauce over the tart before serving. The tart raspberry jam cuts through the rich chocolate, and it’s a match made in heaven. I have used both seeded and seedless jam, and much prefer using the seedless jam. 
• Fresh lemon juice: brightens the raspberry jam and makes the most wonderful sauce that doesn’t require any cooking or pureeing fruit. You will want to pour it over everything. 

Here’s how to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and spray your tart pan with a non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine the biscotti, brown sugar, and butter in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until the biscotti is reduced to fine crumbs.
3. Pour the crumbs onto your tart pan and use your hands to press firmly on the bottom and sides of the pan. The crust needs to be packed down tightly. Once you get it packed down, use a flat bottom measuring cup or another flat bottomed utensil to pack it down further and smooth out the surface. 
4. Place the pan with the crust on a baking sheet and bake for ten to twelve minutes. When it’s golden brown, remove it from the oven. Place it on a wire rack to cool. 
5. While the crust cools, make the ganache filling. For the smoothest ganache, use a serrated knife to finely chop the chocolate and place it in a medium-size glass bowl. 
6. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it’s just simmering. Do not let it come to a boil. Once you see little bubbles start forming around the edges, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it over the chocolate.
7. Let it sit for a minute or two, and then stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth,  dark, and shiny. 
8. Use a spoon or offset spatula to spread one-quarter of a cup of the raspberry preserves evenly over the crust, but stop about one-inch from the side of the pan.
9. Pour the ganache into the prepared crust and spread it out evenly. 
10. Refrigerate uncovered for two to four hours. Once the ganache firms up, you can cover it with plastic wrap.
11. To make the raspberry sauce, place the jam in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave for one minute.  Stir until the jam has smoothed out, and then add the lemon juice. Stir to combine. 
12. To remove the tart from the pan for serving, place a wide can or inverted bowl smaller than the tart bottom on your kitchen counter. Lightly set the cooled tart pan on top of it. Hold the pan ring in one hand and the pan bottom in the other, gently and carefully pull the ring down away from the tart. You can then use a spatula to slide the tart off of the pan bottom and onto a serving plate or keep it on and serve as is. 
13. Use a knife and slice the tart into individual servings. Spoon or pour a little raspberry sauce over each slice. Serve immediately. 

Frequently asked questions:

What is ganache?

Ganache is a smooth, luxurious mixture of melted chocolate and heavy cream. It is very rich and most often used to make truffles or as a filling or glaze for cakes and other desserts. 

What’s the difference between a tart pan, a pie plate, and a springform pan? 

While you can use any of these pans for this recipe, the finished product will look different and have to be served differently. A tart pan is a shallow metal pan with sharp fluted edges and a removable bottom. The removable bottom allows you to remove the rim before sliding the tart off the disk base and onto a serving plate. 

A pie plate or a pie pan, often made of Pyrex, is a round, shallow, slope-sided, one-piece dish with a flat rim to hold the edge of a pie crust. They generally are deeper than a regular tart pan. If you make your tart in a pie pan, you will have to leave it in the pan and slice it while still in the pan. 

A springform pan is a type of metal cake pan with straight deep sides made in two parts. It has a base and a removable ring that serves as the side of the pan. Springform pans are most often used for baking cheesecakes, but you could also use them for baking your tart. After the tart has been refrigerated and firmed up, you can remove the sides just like the tart pan. 

How do I store my tart?

Because of the cream, your ganache tart will have to be refrigerated. You can store it covered in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze it in an airtight container for up to one month. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before serving. 

What can I substitute for the biscotti in the crust?

This crust recipe is so versatile; you can substitute practically any type of cookie you like or have on hand. Graham crackers, Oreos, chocolate wafer cookies, shortbread cookies, vanilla wafers, and Biscoff cookies would all work. You can also use a regular pie crust, but you will have to blind bake it before adding the ganache. 

Sharon’s tips:

Most tarts of this size are cut into eight servings. This tart is so rich; it can easily serve twelve adults. 

Be sure to heat your cream in a saucepan on the stove instead of in the microwave. The cream will not heat as evenly, and it’s easy to scorch or burn in the microwave. Above all, do not let your cream boil. 

When slicing your tart, for the cleanest cut, warm up your knife under hot running water and then dry it off before cutting a slice. Repeat as needed.

Ensure the bowl you are using to mix the chocolate and cream is either glass or metal and thoroughly dry. Water and chocolate do not mix, and if the bowl is wet, it can cause your chocolate to seize. 

Tart pans are very shallow and hard to grasp when removing from the oven with a potholder. Plus, if you pick it up wrong, the removable bottom is likely to come loose. I like to put my tart pan on a baking sheet before baking to make it easy to move in and out of the oven. 

If you don’t have a tart pan, you can also make this recipe in a springform pan or a pie plate. See the FAQs above for the differences in each. 

More chocolate lover recipes:

If you like this recipe, I know you will love these quick and easy favorites: Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake, Chocolate Cherry Valentine’s Day Torte, Homemade Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Peppermint Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Cherry Brownie Parfait, and Dark Chocolate Billionaire Candy.

If you need more menu ideas or suggestions, you also might like my roundup of 30+ Valentine’s Day Desserts and Treats, and the Ultimate Valentine’s Day Menu and Recipes. 

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