Tuesday, February 21, 2012

BWJ -- Chocolate Truffle Tarts

Our second entry for Baking With Julia: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets. Yum. You can find the recipe on pages 382-383 of the book or you can check out our hosts' blogs: Spike, Jaime, Jessica and Steph. (Apologies to Steph of "A Whisk and a Spoon" -- the link doesn't seem to copy to my blog.)

There are two recipes, both by David Ogonowski. First you make the dough for the tarts. Reading through the recipe, I had a serious case of food-processor envy. To say this is a "hands on" recipe is putting it mildly and I had my doubts. I usually avoid making pie crusts with butter for the very reason that it seems that the butter and flour will never reach the size of small peas. Eventually using fingertips, a dough scraper, two butter knives and rubbing the dough between both palms, I got the butter mixed in with the other ingredients.   After chilling it, it rolled out like a charm.
In the end however, the dough turned out to be a bit dry and they shrunk a bit in the tartlet pan. I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong. Maybe the oven temperature was too high, maybe I left them in too long.



The filling came out like a dream; very rich and full of chocolate flavor. Although, I must invest in a metal bowl for melting the chocolate. I had to balance a small pan on top of a larger pan instead. Waiting for the chocolate to genly melt, I couldn't take my hand off the pan lest it fall.
I didn't use biscotti, but the tarts still had a nice crunch from the chocolate bits. This is just about the fanciest desert I have ever made and it was a perfect ending for our Valentine's Day dinner.


14 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this recipe too, your tarts look great!

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    1. Thanks, Mireia. I think it helps to have a pretty plate on which to put the tartlets.

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  2. A rich dessert AND a yummy one!

    Carmen
    http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com

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    1. Thanks Carmen. I thought your combo of malt balls and dried cranberries was inspired.

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    2. Glad your Valentine's dinner had a sweet ending too. This may be blasphemous, but I always melt chocolate in the microwave. If I'm melting with butter, I put it in for 30 seconds at a time (usually 1 minute total)then whisk it together. Very easy.

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    3. Melting chocolate in the microwave. Blasphemous? I don't think so. Sensible or smart maybe, but not blasphemous. I'm sorry I didn't think of it myself.

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  3. If the dough shrunk, next time try freezing the rolled out dough in the tart pan while the oven pre-heats. The freezer is your friend. Other than that is looks pretty good.

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  4. Pice crusts ARE intimidating! I think most cooks would agree with that. I'm lucky that my mom had me standing on a stool rolling pie crusts when I was 5. I got used to working with crust before I knew to be nervous. Do you think she knew the gift she was giving me? I don't know. Looks like your tarts turned out great. I love the way these baking and cooking projects push us to knew experiences.

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  5. I'm afraid of making pie crusts without a food processor. I'm very impressed that you did it!

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  6. Cold and not stretching the dough are your friends when it comes to crusts that don't shrink. Some time in the fridge or freezer helps alot!
    Hope you are feeling better.

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  7. They were a perfect VD dessert. YUM.

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  8. I don't do baking as much as I used to do before going gluten free but still you can find something of your interest. Nice to meet you.

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  9. Wouldn't mind eating a couple of these choc beauties - stunning :D

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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