Tart the Second

Previously, I never understood the real desire to make a tart when you could easily make it be a pie instead. Pie > Tart; Or so I thought. 

The first tart I ever made was a raspberry tart with a crumble topping for my bestie Jess' 25th birthday. It was splendiferous, made from fresh raspberries that I'd picked late that summer. So when my buddy Lesley came and stayed with me, bringing a bag of fresh wild strawberries she'd picked, the call for tart echoed softly in my brain. (-taaaart taaaaart taaaaart-)

Wild Strawberry Chocolate Tart

Chocolate Press-in Pastry:

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cups cocoa powder
2 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter (cold)
1/4 cup margarine (cold)
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vinegar

  1. Oil and flour a ~9 inch tart pan. Set aside.
  2. Combine flour through salt in a bowl. Stir together.
  3. Add cold butter and margarine. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut butter and margarine into dry ingredients until smaller that pea sized lumps remain. 
  4. In a cup, add egg yolk and vinegar. Using a fork, whisk egg and vinegar together. Pour liquid over tart mixture and stir to combine. 
  5. Form pastry into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 
  6. On a floured surface, roll out pastry to ~1 cm thick. The pastry is Very Soft. It will tear when you go to move it to the tart pan. That's ok. Just pat the pieces together. (Also, start pre-heating the oven to 375'.)
  7. Pat the pastry evenly into the tart shell. (If you kept the separated egg white around from the egg that was used, brush it onto the surface of the pastry.)

Strawberry Filling:

2 cups wild strawberries, headed and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP flour

  1. Combine all filling ingredients together in a bowl. Stir together.
  2. Pour filling into prepared tart shell.
  3. Bake at 375' for about 40 minutes.

While I think I will always have a preference for pie, tarts will now have their place seated at the what-to-do-with-fresh-berries table in the Conference Hall A of my brain. 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

 

 

The Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

As part of Christmas Baking 2013.

To make sure that I survive the Christmas season, I attempt to give myself diabetes with amazing homemade desserts. I had two Christmas and 13 people to get sugared so, along with the Chiffon cake, I made these Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts.

First thing I made was the tart shells. More out of necessity as the grocery store was dangerously low on tart shell stock. Plus, my sister had given me a mini tart shell pan 3 years ago and I had never used it.... So I thought I'd break it in. 

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Sweet Vanilla Tart Shells

(From the Blue Flame Kitchen; Changed a little by me!)

1 cup (250 mL) butter, softened 
3/4 cup (175 mL) icing sugar 
4 tsp (20 mL) vanilla 
2 cups (500 mL) flour 
1 tsp (5 mL) salt
 

  1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
  2. Using medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together butter and icing sugar until fluffy.  Using low speed, beat in vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour and salt just until combined. Gather dough into a ball; divide in half.  Flatten each half into a disc shape.  Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. 
  3. Remove one disc of dough from refrigerator.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick.  Using a floured 3 inch (7.5 cm) cookie cutter, cut dough into rounds.  Transfer each round to a mini tart pan using your fingers to press pastry into a tart shell shape. Prick bottom of tart shells all over with a fork. Repeat procedure with remaining disc of dough. Bake for 10 minutes or until tart shells are light golden around edges.  Cool completely in pans on racks. Remove tart shells from pans. 

Now, that my lovely, slightly deformed tart shells were cooling, I started making my ganache for the filling.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

(From The Blue Flam Kitchen; Also, changed by me)

8 ounces Bernard Callebaut bittersweet chocolate drops
1/2 cup whipping cream
~1/4 cup Bernard Callebaut chocolate hazelnut spread
~24 mini baked tart shells
2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

  1. Combine chocolate and cream in a 4 cup microwave-safe bowl.
  2. Microwave, uncovered, on medium (50% power), stirring twice, for 1 1/2 minutes or just until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
  3. Spread 1 tsp chocolate hazelnut spread on bottom of each tart shell. Spoon about 1 tsp of chocolate mixture on top, covering hazelnut spread underneath.
  4. Sprinkle with walnuts.
  5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

So good. It's a strange recipe but I like it. You can also top of the tarts with flaked sea salt, if you have it. Also good. 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist