Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Torte

The Linzer Torte is perhaps the most famous desserts to come out of Austria, along with Sachertorte. Made with a delicate crust of ground nuts, it is filled with raspberry preserves and topped with a lattice crust. I am not big on tarts with jam filling and thought of skipping this bake till I came across Pierre Hermé’s beautiful Chocolate Linzer Tart – which is filled with not only jam, but chocolate!

Some bloggers who have tried the recipe commented that Pierre Hermé’s crust recipe is rather crumbly so I decided to source for another pie crust recipe. Unfortunately, the others I tried were also difficult to get right. The first one was too soft and could not be moulded while the second was too hard to roll out when I took it out of the refrigerator. I almost gave up when I finally discovered a very simple almond crust base that actually stayed in shape.

Instead of chocolate ganache, I filled the tart with my healthier chocolate tofu mousse. The tart was indeed delicious – the fragrant almond crust base, rich chocolate mousse and raspberry jam went wonderfully well together. Topped with the luscious raspberries, it is a dessert I would be proud to serve at a dinner party. The best part is, it’s a healthier dessert so I can eat all I want.

Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Tart (7 inch tart)

1. Tart base (Recipe from here)

Ingredients

•  1 cup almond meal or almond flour
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp sugar

Method

• Heat oven to 175 degrees C.
• Melt the butter and mix it with the almond flour and sugar till it resembles fine crumbs.
• Press the crumbs into place on the base of a 7 inch baking tin with removable base.
• Bake for about 15 minutes until the crust is browned.
• Leave it aside to cool. Do not remove from tin.

2. Chocolate Filling (using the Chocolate Tofu Mousse recipe)

Ingredients

•  135 g of silken tofu, drained
• 60 g high quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 15 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 30 ml cup water
• 1/2 tbsp almond milk/soy milk
• 55 g sugar
• 1 tablespoons port/Grand Marnier (optional)
• 3/8 tsp of gelatine powder (1/4 tsp, plus half of 1/4 tsp makes 3/8 tsp)

Method

• Place the heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering simmering water and melt the chocolate with cocoa powder, almond milk, water, liquor, sugar and stirring occasionally. Once melted, stir in gelatine powder till it is fully dissolved. Remove from the heat.
• Blend the silken tofu in the food processor, until very smooth, then gently fold into the chocolate mixture. (after this step, I sieved the chocolate mixture three times to remove lumps).

3. Jam Filling

•  2 tbsp ready-made raspberry jam diluted with 1 tbsp of hot water. Mix well and set aside.

To Assemble: Spread a thin layer of jam onto the almond crust base. Pour the prepared chocolate mousse over the jam layer spreading it out well till it reaches the edges of the tin. Refrigerate  for about 4 hours till it is well set. Spread another thin layer of jam mixture over the chocolate mousse and top with raspberries.

Note: When left overnight in the refrigerator, the pie crust was slightly softened.