No Bake Strawberry & White Chocolate Ganache Tart

Ever since I moved to Dubai I haven’t been able to bake. We moved into a furnished house that had space restrictions and the Spouse had already bought a heavy-duty microwave (not knowing that it could not bake) rather enthusiastically. So anyway, I decided to make do with what we had and I’ve put off buying a convection oven till we move. Also because I mostly cook Indian food at home that has little use for the convection oven.
But the heart wants what it wants! I miss baking cakes and cookies and since we both have a sweet tooth, we often resort to traditional Indian sweets and desserts made at home or just buy a cake slice from a bakery or Cheesecake Factory!

No-bake? No problem! 

So like you must have guessed from the title of this post, I’ve been exploring no-bake desserts for quite some time and since it’s Valentine’s, I thought I’ll make something special.

I’ve tried making ganache with milk chocolate earlier and I’d put it in a biscuit crumb crust along with peanut butter and some nuts and I must say, I was pretty impressed with the results. But this time, I had resolved to up the ante.

I wanted to use some white chocolate this time as it’s Spouse’s favourite and some strawberries because well, I like strawberries! So I searched some food blogs for inspiration and found this recipe from Shiran Dickman’s blog!

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So all I did was bought some Lindt white chocolate, a slice of a pound cake and a pack of low fat digestive biscuits. I already had strawberry jam, butter and cream in the house.

Here’s how I made the No bake Strawberry and White Chocolate Ganache Tart:

Ingredients
{Makes a 6 inch tart}
Preparation Time: Active- 40 minutes, Inactive – 3 hours

For the crust:

• 1 cup Digestive Biscuit crumbs
• 3/4 cup melted Butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

For the filling:

• Store bought pound cake
• 3-4 teaspoons Strawberry jam
• Icing (Optional)

For the ganache:

• 100 gms Good quality White chocolate (I used Lindt)
• Half cup heavy cream

Method

In a food processor, process 5-6 digestive biscuits to make 1 cup of crumbs. I used McVities Digestive Light biscuits. You could also use Graham crackers instead or just crumbs sold at the store.

Melt Butter and measure. I used salted butter because that’s what I had and I don’t mind the crust to be a little salty as it balances the sweetness of the filling.

In a bowl, gather the biscuit crumbs, melted butter and half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder. Mix well.

Setting the Crust

In a tart tin/pan or a shallow dish, transfer the butter and crumb mixture and form a thick layer till the edges to form the crust for the pudding.
I didn’t have a separate tart tin/pan so I lined up my 6 inch cast iron skillet with 2 layers of some aluminium foil for this.

Chill the crust for an hour in the fridge. (Don’t skip this step!!)

Next, take a 2-3 slices of the pound cake and break to make crumbs in a bowl. Mix in  icing of your choice or use the cake crumbs as is. You can totally customise this step by putting in just the icing or some peanut butter or some chopped strawberries or some other fruit. Just be sure to leave space for the top layer and that this layer shouldn’t be too watery to make the biscuit crust too moist.

Line the tart with the cake crumbs and press to form an even layer.
Microwave the strawberry jam in for 15 seconds and spread a thin layer over the cake crumbs. Leave 1 teaspoon of melted jam for topping.

We work on the Ganache next.

Chop the chocolate bar and transfer to a clean bowl.
In another vessel heat some water till it starts to form steam. Place the bowl with the chocolate on top of the steaming bowl and start stirring the chocolate till it melts. Be careful about hot water touching the bowl with the chocolate so as to not burn the white chocolate. See more of the bain marie method here.

Microwave cream in a small bowl for 15 seconds. Be sure to stir in the cream in the bowl before heating it in the microwave so that any steam (while heating) escapes and you do not hear any loud sounds from the microwave like I did! 🙄

Mix in the heated cream in the melted chocolate and keep stirring till you see a smooth shiny ganache form. The chocolate may seem as split at first but keep stirring.

Once you are happy with the consistency, pour the ganache in the tart crust for the next layer and smoothen the surface with a spatula.
It’s almost done!
Make little dots from the leftover heated strawberry jam on the ganache.

Use a knife or the back of a spoon/fork to run over the surface gently to make designs or to create a marbled effect.
Line the edges with chopped strawberries or any fresh fruits of your choice and leave to chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

Patience! 2 hours isn’t much! Read a book! Make a cup of tea!
Take out of the fridge after the tart is set. Gently lift the tart out with the foil layer and transfer to a plate or a serving dish. Carefully take out the foil layer. Slice and serve!

Enjoy the No bake Strawberry White Chocolate Ganache tart with loved ones!