Chocolate Tart with Marshmallow Meringue
October 25, 2018
“Chocolate tart and marshmallow meringue”
Two tarts on a white plate, each one completely covered in peaked kisses of meringue that I torched to a toasted-marshmallow brown. Underneath is chocolate.
It is a s'more rebuilt as French pastry: a crisp shell for the graham cracker, a ganache for the chocolate bar, and a marshmallow-style meringue for the toasted marshmallow. A meringue made with a higher proportion of sugar and cooked over heat has that stretchy, marshmallow chew, and it takes the torch well. Piping individual kisses, in place of a swirl, gives more edges to catch the flame. This post is a video on Instagram.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
S'mores Tart
The campfire sandwich of graham cracker, chocolate and toasted marshmallow, rebuilt as a tart. Recipes for s'mores have been printed in American scouting handbooks since the 1920s. Here a buttery graham crust holds a silky chocolate ganache under a thick layer of vanilla meringue, torched until it tastes like a fire-toasted marshmallow.
Ingredients
Graham crust
- 200 g graham cracker crumbs, from about 13 full sheets (1 3/4 cups)
- 30 g light brown sugar (2 tbsp)
- 2 g fine salt (1/3 tsp)
- 90 g unsalted butter, melted (6 1/2 tbsp)
Chocolate ganache
- 150 g dark chocolate, 60-66% cacao, finely chopped (5 1/4 oz)
- 100 g milk chocolate, finely chopped (3 1/2 oz)
- 250 g heavy cream (1 cup plus 1 tbsp)
- 30 g unsalted butter, soft (2 tbsp)
- Pinch of flaky salt
Marshmallow meringue
- 120 g egg whites (4 large)
- 240 g granulated sugar (1 cup plus 3 tbsp)
- 1 g cream of tartar (1/4 tsp)
- 8 g vanilla extract (2 tsp)
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Mix the crumbs, brown sugar, salt and melted butter until the mixture looks like wet sand and holds together when squeezed.
- Press firmly and evenly over the base and sides of a 9-inch (23 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom, using a flat-bottomed glass. Bake 10-12 minutes until fragrant and a shade darker, then cool.
- Bring the cream just to a simmer and pour it over both chocolates. Wait 1 minute, then stir from the centre outward until smooth and glossy.
- Stir in the butter and salt, pour the ganache into the cooled crust and chill until set, about 2 hours.
- For the meringue, whisk the whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a mixer bowl over simmering water until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture reaches 160°F (71°C).
- Whip on high speed 6-8 minutes until thick, glossy and stiff, adding the vanilla at the end.
- Pile the meringue over the ganache and shape it into swoops with the back of a spoon, or pipe large kisses with a plain tip.
- Torch the meringue until deeply browned in places, a little darker than you would for a lemon tart. Serve the same day, slicing with a hot, wet knife.
Chef’s notes
- A crust that crumbles when sliced was not pressed hard enough or was short on butter. Compact it firmly, especially where the base meets the sides.
- Let the ganache set completely before adding meringue. The warm meringue will melt a soft ganache and slide off.
- For a sablé version, swap the graham crust for a blind-baked pâte sucrée shell with 1 tsp cinnamon and 20 g honey added to the dough.
- Wipe and reheat the knife between cuts for clean layers.
Drawn from the methods of
- Stella Parks, BraveTart (2017)
- Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel, Bouchon Bakery (2012)
- Dominique Ansel, Everyone Can Bake (2020)
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
