Black Forest Cake is one of my favorite cakes that is a celebration of such a great flavor combinations. The combination of chocolate, cherries and whipped cream is just so delicious in my opinion – sweet, sour and bittersweet. So simple and so delicious!
This next Black Forest tart combines these three flavors perfectly. It’s made of a crunchy chocolatey crust filled with chocolate and cherry nut cream, chocolate truffles and soft vanilla whipped cream for decoration. Lots of cherries on top too!
If you like cherries – I have no doubt you will love this Black Forest tart. And if Black Forest Cake is one of your favorites – try this modern version. You won’t be disappointed 🙂
Black Forest Tart
For the chocolate crust:
- 180 grams (1 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour
- 30 grams (3 tbsp.) cocoa powder
- 50 grams (5 tbsp.) sugar powder
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) cold butter, cut into cubes
- Pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- 1-2 tablespoons cold water (as needed)
For chocolate and cherries nut cream:
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) cold butter, cut into cubes
- 100 grams walnuts
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
- 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
- 25 grams dark chocolate chips
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 50 grams of frozen pitted cherries (not thawed)
For truffle domes:
- 100 grams dark chocolate (chopped)
- 75 ml. (1/3 cup) whipping cream
For vanilla whipped cream:
- 250 ml. (1 cup) whipping cream, very cold
- 1 tbsp. powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp. instant vanilla pudding powder
For decoration:
- Fresh cherries
- Walnuts
Chocolate crust:
- In a food processor with a steel blade, mix flour, cocoa, powdered sugar, butter and salt into a crumbly mixture.
- Add the egg and continue to blend until large chunks of sough form. If necessary, and if the dough is too dry and won’t come together – add another 1-2 tablespoons of cold water.
- Transfer the dough chunks to a work surface, combine it with your hands and flatten to a disc shape. Wrap in plastic and cool for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- On a floured surface roll out the dough about 3 mm thick and transfer to a lightly greased tart pan to form a crust. Make sure to place the dough so that there will be a straight angle between the sides and the bottom.
- Pierce the crust base with a fork and cool for about 1/2 hour in the freezer.
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
Blind baking:
- Place plastic wrap or cling foil over the frozen crust and fill it with baking weights.
- Bake the crust this way for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the dough begin to turn golden and set.
- Remove the weights and the plastic wrap and continue baking for 3-4 minutes until the dough sets but is still not fully baked.
- Cool for about 10 minutes at room temperature.
Chocolate and cherries nut cream:
- In a food processor with a steel blade, mix butter, nuts, sugar, cocoa and dark chocolate into a crumbly mixture.
- Add egg and milk and continue to blend until very thick cream is formed.
- Pour the cream over the half-baked crust and arrange the cherries on top of the cream.
- Bake the tart for about 12-18 minutes or until the filling sets at the edges but is still slightly soft in the center.
- Cool completely before decoration.
Truffles:
- Chop the chocolate and put in a bowl.
- In a small pot heat the cream to a boil. Pour the hot cream on the chopped chocolate, wait about a minute and whisk until you get a uniform, shiny ganache.
- Pour the ganache into a silicon mold shaped like small domes (available in baking specialty stores).
- Freeze the truffles for about 1-2 hours, until the domes are easily extracted from the mold.
Vanilla whipped cream:
- In a mixer bowl, whip cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and pudding until you get a very firm whipped cream.
- Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with a 3 cm serrated piping tip.
Assemble the tart:
- Place truffle domes on top of the baked filling.
- Drizzle small mounds of whipped cream in between the chocolate truffles.
- Garnish with fresh cherries and walnuts and serve.
- Keep the tart in a closed container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. It is recommended to remove about 10 minutes before serving.
- Instead of cherries, you can use any other berries you like in the same amount.
- You can decorate any type of nuts that you like.