Valentine's Tarts for Two

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With Valentine’s Day approaching, here is a dessert for two that is perfect for a romantic date night. These Valentine's Tarts for Two are made with chocolate sablé tart shells filled with raspberry cheesecake filling, topped with white chocolate ganache and adorned with a raspberry sauce heart design.

Raspberry and chocolate just might be my favorite combination. Tart and sweet raspberries pair so beautifully with rich chocolate. The combo just screams Valentine’s Day for me. So every year for Valentine’s Day I always find a way to work these flavors into a dessert.

Tips for making tarts

Ensuring your tart dough is properly chilled is crucial for these Valentine's tarts. I sometimes have to go in and out of the fridge and freezer 10-15 times just to keep the dough at a workable temperature. If your dough is too warm you may experience cracking while working with it and major shrinking during baking. 

Even if you do not refrigerate your dough during cutting and forming, it is crucial to properly chill it in your tart ring or pan before baking. For this recipe you need to chill at least 30 minutes before baking and up to 2 hours. When I first started baking, I did not know this and ended up with a few melted and shrunken tarts. Take it from me — Chill. Your. Dough.

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Adaptations and variations for Valentine’s Day tarts

If you do not like raspberries, you could easily substitute strawberries, cherries, blueberries or blackberries in this recipe. If you do not like white chocolate, you could substitute milk or dark chocolate for the ganache layer. If you really like chocolate, you could even forego the cheesecake filling and just fill your shells completely with white chocolate ganache.

I also find that some people do not like chocolate sablé tart shells, because they can be difficult to tell when they are done in the oven. You could use a vanilla sablé dough for this recipe instead. Use this recipe from my Lucky New Year Fruit Tarts.

This Valentine’s Day tarts recipe serves 2-4, but you could scale up to make several small tarts, or one larger tart to serve family and friends, using a round or rectangle tart pan with a removable bottom.

Tips: 

I highly recommend using perforated tart rings for a better tart shell. Non-perforated tart pans with removable bottoms will work as well, but you may experience more shrinking and uneven cooking.

I use ceramic pie weights during blind baking, but you can use dried beans or rice if you do not have ceramic pie weights.

📖 Recipe

Valentine’s Tarts for Two

Heather Janak

Chocolate tart shells filled with raspberry cheesecake, white chocolate ganache and raspberry sauce hearts.

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 50 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Resting Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Servings 2

Calories 667 kcal

Equipment

• Fine mesh strainer
• Rolling Pin
• Hand mixer
• Silicone baking mats
• Ceramic pie weights
• Large Metal Mixing Bowl
• Tart Rings

Ingredients

  

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Tart dough

• ▢ 100 g cake flour
• ▢ 15 g almond flour
• ▢ 45 g powdered sugar
• ▢ 15 g cocoa powder
• ▢ Pinch salt
• ▢ 55 g unsalted butter cold, cut in ¼-inch cubes
• ▢ 25 g egg (½ large egg)
• ▢ Semisweet chocolate

Raspberry cheesecake filling

• ▢ ½ teaspoon cornstarch
• ▢ 2 tablespoon cold water
• ▢ 165 g raspberries (6 oz)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ▢ 50 ml heavy cream
• ▢ 110 g cream cheese (4 oz) room temperature
• ▢ 1 tablespoon sour cream (15g)
• ▢ 2 tablespoon sugar (30g) divided
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ▢ Pinch salt

White chocolate ganache

• ▢ 100 g white chocolate
• ▢ 50 g heavy cream
• ▢ Whitener
• ▢ Whipped cream For garnish, optional

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Instructions

 

Make tart dough

• Sift together cake flour, almond flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt into a large bowl.
• Add cold butter pieces and work them into the flour mixture with your hands until a sandy texture forms. The mixture should hold shape in a clump when pressed into your palm.
• Add egg and mix by hand until the dough comes together. Form a ball and cover the dough in plastic wrap, flattening into a disk. Rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, or overnight.
• After resting, roll it out into 2mm thickness between thick plastic or two silicone baking mats. Do not use extra flour for rolling.
• Place the dough into the freezer for 15 minutes to make it easier to work with. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
• Take the dough out from the freezer and cut out circles the size of the bottom of your tart rings. Place your tart rings onto your prepared baking sheet. Place circles into the bottoms of your rings.
• If your dough becomes too warm to work with, stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes.
• Next, cut long strips for the sides of your tart rings. Place strips into your tart rings without trimming the excess yet. Set the pan in the freezer to freeze solid for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 325°F.
• Take the pan out and trim excess dough. Prick the bottoms with a fork. Place parchment and pie weights in each cavity, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove parchment and pie weights and bake again until bottoms look dry and done, about 5-10 more minutes.
• Cool completely, then unmold and brush bottoms with melted semi sweet chocolate to prevent a soggy bottom.

Make the raspberry sauce

• Place cornstarch and water in a small saucepan. Whisk until combined. Add raspberries, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, then mash raspberries. Cook 5-10 more minutes, until thickened slightly. Remove from heat.
• Sieve raspberries through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Set sauce in the refrigerator to cool.

Make the raspberry cheesecake filling

• Beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
• Beat cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and beat until combined. Add sour cream, vanilla and salt. Beat until combined.
• Fold whipped cream and half of the raspberry sauce into the cream cheese mixture. Fill tart shells ¾ full with the cheesecake filling. I used a piping bag and smoothed the tops with a bent spoon.

Make the white chocolate ganache

• Melt together white chocolate and heavy cream in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie. Remove from heat and cool slightly before pouring over cheesecake filling to the tops of the tart shells.
• Using a piping bag or squeeze bottle place small drops of raspberry sauce over top of the ganache in lines. Drag a toothpick through the drops to create a heart effect.
• Move the tarts to the refrigerator to cool the ganache completely. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

Notes

Store in the refrigerator. Dough can be made ahead as it needs to chill 2 hours or overnight.

Nutrition

Calories: 667kcal

Keyword cheesecake, chocolate, cream cheese, fruit tart, raspberries, raspberry, tart, tart dough, white chocolate

Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!