Raspberry and Chocolate Tarts

Basically I made these for two reasons:  I wanted to make use of these little tart pans I purchased that I feel I don't use enough--and by making these I can justify my purchase.  The second reason is that I wanted to make something fancy looking with raspberries.

I have to say that making pie dough turns me into a nervous wreck.  The temperature in my apartment does not fall below 75 degrees during the summer so I'm sweating something fierce rolling it out in a frenzied fashion and attempting to prevent any butter from melting into the dough.  But I have a system in place which involves a pizza stone and the energy inefficient method of opening and closing my freezer door every 5 minutes or so.  Gotta keep that shit cold!  You know??  You know.  

So making 6 little pie doughs can be extra nerve-wracking.  It's not like I can roll out the dough once and cut out 6 individual circles.  In one roll I can only get 3 and then you have to clump the scraps back together without working it too much so you don't get a tough pie crust all the while keeping it cold. It's a mad dash to the finish.  

But I manage and luckily my system--however inefficient may be--seemed to work this time.  The pastry dough is the hardest part about these tarts.  The rest is just melting chocolate and putting some raspberries on top of it.  And I did add a glaze for the raspberries to make them shine a bit.

I really love the taste of chocolate and raspberries together in one bite.  It's sweet and sour and maybe even a little bitter.  Delicious.  I don't have a lot more to say about these so I'll leave it at this--these are easy but fancy and they taste fantastic so I'd go for it.  Love yourself.  But love these tarts more.

Recipe for 6 - 4" tarts

Pie dough:
Your favorite pie crust recipe--enough for a top and bottom crust for a 9" pie

Chocolate ganache:
10 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
1c of heavy cream

Raspberries:
As many as you want--I used 8 for each tart so 48 total

Simple sugar glaze:
50g water
50g sugar
25g lemon juice
3g pectin

-Roll out pie dough and cut out 6 - 5" circles
-Line the tart pans with the dough
-Line each tart with parchment paper and pie weights
-Place all of the tarts on a baking sheet and refrigerate while you preheat the oven to 350 F
-Bake the tart shells for 18-20 minutes or until they are golden brown
-Remove from oven and let cool completely
-Meanwhile make the ganache
-Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl
-Place the heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat to the point where it's just about to boil--small bubbles will form around the edge of the saucepan
-Remove the cream from the heat and pour it over the chocolate
-Whisk together the cream and chocolate until all of the chocolate is fully melted and it's a silky smooth mixture
-Divide the ganache equally between the tarts
-Place the tarts in the fridge until the ganache is set
-Once set, remove from fridge and prep the raspberries by washing and drying them with water
-Divide the raspberries evenly between the tarts and just set them atop the ganache
-To make the glaze, combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and boil for 3 minutes
-Remove the glaze from the heat and with a pastry brush, glaze all of the strawberries--while the glaze is still warm
-The glaze should set pretty quickly so when it does you are done!