Try the Grey Stuff, it's Delicious!

Disney Classic # 30 - Beauty and the Beast

Please excuse the smudge on the side of the mousse bowl! I didn't notice it at the time!!

Beauty and the Beast is my absolute all time favourite Disney movie ever. I love it! And I'm not just saying that, like the Disney Historians do on the bonus features... I mean it is my absolute all time favourite ever! I dressed as Belle at my 21st birthday party, and when I met Belle and Prince Adam at Disneyland Paris in 2009 I gushed:

Me - "OhmygoshI'msogladIgottomeetyouyou'remyfavouriteandtoday'smylastdayandIdidn'tthinkI'dgettoseeyoubutIdidandnowmyholidayandmylifearecompletebecauseyou'rethebestandIloveyousososomuch!!"
Belle - *smiles awkwardly* "You're wearing yellow, like me!"

It was the best day ever.


True story - I was wearing yellow!


Anyways, to honour my absolute all time favourite Disney movie ever, I'm decided to try to recreate my absolute all time favourite pudding ever. Which I just so happened to eat in Disneyland Paris. Which is in France, just like Beauty and the Beast. (Just in case you needed further justification!)

The dessert was the most delicious, beautiful, lovely tasting pudding in my whole life - a chocolate tart with white chocolate mousse, and that's what I tried to recreate this week!

The white chocolate mousse turned out especially tasty.

Now regular readers of this blog will know that I absolutely love my BBC Good Foods 101 Cakes and Bakes recipe book. I love it so much in fact, that I decided to buy it's younger sister, 101 Tempting Desserts, and that's where I found the recipe for the chocolate tart. I borrowed the white chocolate mousse from this recipe (which sounds delicious in it's own right!!)


Tarte au Chocolat

Prep time: 45 mins               Cook time: 25 mins (plus 2 hours to set)      Serves: 12-16

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
200g plain flour
100g ground almond
170g butter, cubed
50g golden caster sugar
2 egg yolks

For the filling:
200g dark chocolate
2 egg whites
100g golden caster sugar
145ml double cream

Note: the recipe in the book said to make the pastry in a blender. I thought, ummm, that sounds weird, but tried it anyways as I trust Good Food wholeheartedly. I was very wrong, and ended up with a complete pastry fail! It was far too crumbly to roll so I ended up pressing it into the dish and that made it uneven as a nightmare to get out. In future I will always make pastry the old fashioned way - rubbing in.

1. Place the flour, butter and ground almond into a bowl and rub between your fingers until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, egg yolk and a tbsp of cold water and mix with a knife until the ingredients bind together to make a dough. (If you're having trouble making the ingredients bind with the knife, just get your hinds involved, but be careful not to over-work it!)
2. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. (If you're making the white chocolate mousse, now's a good time to start melting your white chocolate... see recipe below!)
3. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, and use it to line a flan dish. Bake blind (covered in foil and weighed down with rice/baking beads) for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and the beads and bake for a further 7-10 minutes, until crispy and golden. Set to one side to cool. (Now's a good time to make the mousse, if you plan to do so!)
4. Once the pastry is cool, prepare the filling. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then set to one side.
5. In another bowl, place the egg whites and the sugar, and place this over the pan of simmering water. Whisk for 5 minutes until really thick and glossy, then remove from the heat and whisk for a further 2 minutes.
6. Gently pour the chocolate and the cream into the bowl of egg/sugar, and fold in until all the ingredients combine. Pour the filling into the pastry case, and then put in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
7. Cut into slices and serve!

White Chocolate Mousse

Honestly... I don't know how I missed that smudge!

Prep time: 20 mins        Cook time: none (but 2 hours chill time)        Serves: 12-16

Ingredients:
400g white chocolate
2 egg whites
2 tbsp caster sugar
180ml double cream

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Place to one side to cool slightly, but not set.
2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, add the sugar then whisk again until smooth and glossy.
3. I a large bowl, whip the double cream until thick and pillowy, but not quite peaking. Fold the melted chocolate into the cream with a spatula, then add the egg whites and continue to fold until all combine.
4. Place the mousse in a serving dish/serving dishes, and place in the fridge for at lease 2 hours, until set.
5. Serve on it's own, or as an accompaniment to the chocolate tart!

Soo much chocolaty goodness! It didn't quite reach the standards of the Disneyland dessert, but then I'm not a Parisian pastry chef! It was a pretty good effort, and I'd definitely make these again!

We're well and truly in the Disney Golden Age of my childhood now, and next week we're watching Aladdin. I'll be making some Sultan's Turbans to go with the movie!
Happy Thoughts
x