Mocha Tart

Mr Recession Kitchen doesn’t really like cake.  When asked what dessert he wanted for his birthday, he said “I don’t know, but not cake”.  Knowing that two of his most favorite foods are chocolate and coffee, I made him a mocha tart.

Made with bittersweet ScharffenBerger chocolate and garnished with chocolate covered coffee beans, this tart was a huge hit at the birthday fiesta on Saturday night.  I wish I’d made two to them.  I adapted the recipe for a Mexican Chocolate Tart from My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky.  I removed the chili and cinnamon and added a couple of teaspoons of organic instant coffee.  I made the crust from a box of Annie’s Homegrown Chocolate Bunny Grahams.  These adorable little bunny cookies will make you feel like a mass murderer when you pulse them into oblivion in your food processor, but do it anyway, because they make a very tasty crust.

I mixed the crushed up bunnies with a little sugar and Earth Balance Organic Buttery Spread and baked it for 12 minutes in a tart pan with a removable bottom.

While it was cooling, I made the filling from bittersweet chocolate, soy creamer, more buttery spread, and instant coffee.  Keep in mind, the better the chocolate, the better the tart will taste.  Buy the good stuff.  After the tart crust cooled, I filled it and then let is set up in the fridge for 3 hours.

I used crushed up chocolate covered coffee beans to decorate the top.  Those chocolate covered coffee beans have a very concentrated amount of caffeine, when combined with the coffee in the pie, it can keep you awake at night.  Eater beware, but totally worth it.  Happy Birthday Mr Recession Kitchen!

Mocha Tart

Makes 8 large servings or 16 small ones - use organic ingredients whenever possible

For the Crust:

1 box Chocolate Bunny Grahams (or 2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs)

1/8 cup unbleached sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance Organic Buttery Spread

Preheat your oven to 350˚

Crush the cookies and sugar in a food processor for about 20 seconds or until the cookies are a fine crumb.  Melt the Buttery Spread and mix it into the cookie crumb and sugar mix.

Press the mix into a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom.

Bake for 12 minutes and let it cool.

For the Filling:

8 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, broken up into pieces

1 cup soy creamer

1/4 cup Earth Balance Organic Butter Spread

2 teaspoons organic instant coffee crystals dissolved in a few drops of water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Decoration:

1/3 cup chocolate covered coffee beans

Put the broken up chocolate pieces in a bowl

In a pot, heat the soy creamer over a medium heat.

Add the buttery spread and stir with a whisk until completely dissolved.

Bring the mixture almost to boiling and immediately pour it over the chocolate pieces in the bowl.

Let this sit for a few minutes and then stir with the whisk, vigorously, until everything is completely smooth.

Stir in the dissolved instant coffee and vanilla.

Pour into the cooled tart crust and refrigerate for 3 hours.  

Bring to room temperature at least 15 minutes before serving

Pulse the chocolate covered coffee beans in a food processor a few times and sprinkle around the outside of the tart.