Julia's Chocolate Tart Dough

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably dutch-processed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon ice water

Recipe

• 1 to make dough in food processor fitted with metal blade: put the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt in work bowl and pulse just to blend.
• 2 add butter and pulse 8-10 times, until pieces are about the size of small peas.
• 3 with machine running, add yolk and ice water and process, in short bursts, until just crumbly- don't overwork it!
• 4 turn it out onto the work surface and, working with small portions, smear the dough across the surface with the heel of your hand.
• 5 gather the dough together and shape it into a rough square.
• 6 pat it down to compress it slightly, and wrap in plastic.
• 7 chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
• 8 the dough can remain in the refrigerator for 3 days, or it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month.
• 9 thaw the dough, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator before rolling it out.
• 10 cook's note: when i made this, i stuck the dough in the freezer to chill, then promptly forgot about it.
• 11 4 hours later, when i remembered to pull it out, it was frozen solid.
• 12 i pulled out my box grater and grated it directly into the pie pan.
• 13 it worked beautifully, no roling involed: just patted it all down into place.