Monday, February 20, 2012

TWD: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets



Confession: I don't love chocolate. Rather, I love our local chocolatier, Munson's Chocolates, but I don't love chocolate desserts. Molten chocolate cake doesn't make my heart melt, regular chocolate cake makes my mouth dry, and chocolate mousse - well, it's only okay. Quite frankly, I'm not a big dessert person at all. 


Thus I knew right off the back that these chocolate truffle tartlets wouldn't necessarily be for me, but I was still excited to make them as I planned on serving them on Valentine's Day for my sister's birthday. (In lieu of a birthday cake.) Get that? Yes, my sister's birthday is on Valentine's Day!

Plus, who can resist any recipe that calls for mini tart molds?


I made the chocolate dough weeks earlier and froze it. As I used my food processor, it was super easy. The night before I planned on making the tartlets, I defrosted it in the fridge and then left it out on my kitchen counter for a couple hours. The dough was surprisingly moist still, and I really had no issues with it crumbling and having to put it back together.


After separating the dough into six pieces, I then rolled each piece into a ball and tampered it down with my rolling pin.


Had I been stressed or in need of some energy exertion, this would have been the perfect activity to relieve some of that!


I then pressed each flattened circle into the six tart molds. Either because my tart molds were too large, or because I didn't flatten the dough enough, my dough did not reach the top of the mold sides, so they weren't as pretty as they could have been. (I seem to have this problem a lot when making tarts.) These were baked for about 13-14 minutes.


I then began making the filling. This was the fun part! I melted bittersweet chocolate (I used chips as I had them already in my pantry) with unsalted butter in my pseudo double boiler.



I then pulled out Old Faithful, Red (who again was put through the test the day prior as I made French bread), and whisked egg yolks and sugar until I had a thick, ribbony mixture.


I then folded in a spoon(ula) or two of the melted chocolate mixture, before pouring the remainder of the melted chocolate into the frothy yolks.


And then I added white chocolate (again, chips), chopped milk chocolate, and chopped biscotti. (Which, shamefully, were store-bought. Nap times are only so long these days.)


I have to admit, I almost threw out all my preconceived notions in regard to chocolate desserts at this point as the mixture looked absolutely divine. Using a muffin scoop, it was then divvied out to each of the six tarts, and smoothed with an offset spatula.

I ended up baking the tartlets for 16-17 minutes, a few minutes longer than the recipe called for, as the tops never appeared to look too dry to me. Even when I pulled them out, they still looked a bit wet, but I'm not one to complain if a filling is a bit gooey.


I sprinkled some edible silver stars on one tartlet for the birthday girl.


Oh, oops! How did this picture of my own little tartlet sneak in here?


The tartlets puffed up a smidge upon being taken out of the oven. They did look delicious, but see what I mean? They're definitely still a bit wet looking on top.



In the end, I enjoyed a few bits of the middle portion of the tartlets, but I didn't love them. We made the mistake of not serving them alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and perhaps that could have made all the difference. I'm curious to hear what true chocolate lovers have to say about these.

As for me, I'll continue to end my meals with a non-chocolatey dessert, cheese course, or an extra glass of wine....

21 comments:

  1. I loved it but yes, I'm a chocolate addict!!! I don't get why the tops didn't dry! Maybe the temperature of the oven... Still,they look great and I'm sure I would have enjoyed them as a chocolate lover :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love them too, but I'm also a chocolate fiend :D Your tarts do look fantastic, and I adore the little stars on top!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love chocolate, but I found these to be a bit much. I love them, but only in very small doses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree they are better paired with something like ice cream or berries.

    ReplyDelete
  5. They look great Jen! I like how you can still see the chunks in the filling which created a lovely texture at the top. Oh and your baby is so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. These look delicious. I had to cook mine longer than the recipe said as well. Took about 17 minutes I think. But they were so good!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice post! I totally agree -- I'm more more of a dry-crumbly, fruity or cheesy dessert kind of gal. (And that's what I wrote about too.) FYI: I clicked on your link because of the nutmeg name -- I'm in CT too. My favorite pic, of course, is of your little tartlet with her star puffs. Perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  8. They look good! My hubby didn't care for them too much either.

    ReplyDelete
  9. They were very rich even for me a chocolate lover! I also cooked mine longer as I was concerned about cooking the eggs thoroughly. They didn't seem to be dry so I don't think it hurt them any. Love your pictures and the stars. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am not a huge chocolate lover either - I thought these were very good, but I could only handle a few bites.
    Pictures of baby tartlets are always welcome :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your little tartlet is precious!

    I LOVE chocolate. I wish I didn't. But even as much as I love chocolate, I don't love molten chocolate cake. I don't like the centers of things to be runny-unless it is a Cadbury Egg!

    Your tarts look scrumptious!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jen, nice work! I felt the same way as you did about the tartlets--they didn't wow me. My husband said the same thing about needing some ice cream, but it doesn't take much for him to need ice cream. Love the little tartlet in the high chair. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I like your star sprinkles. They and your toddler are so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  14. These look great! My DH is not a chocolate dessert person either, I was incredibly surprised that he ate biscotti after biscotti while I was making the tart and actually ate a slice of the tart itself! Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  15. They turned out beautiful, even if chocolate isn't your go-to dessert. I'm all for an extra glass of wine! :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I completely enjoyed reading your post and viewing all your beautiful step by step photos! I especially love the one of your own baby tart! SO precious! I have to tell you also that I LOVE your header! I am a lover of nutmeg and I really appreciate seeing how it grows. I had no idea!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yes, they were rich...but good. The addition of your precious one is adorable.

    ~Carmen
    http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. I loved them, but I also have a chocolate problem! Yours look so delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yes, they're very rich-even for a chocolate lover. I had to quarter mine and pair it with ice cream. Your pics are great!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I think you really have to LOVE chocolate to like this dessert - but what a nice sister you are to make them for her birthday. Glad to see another CT person baking along - OK, I live in PA now, but was on the Shoreline for 9 years before that. Thanks for baking with me this week!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Yes to the extra glass of wine!

    ReplyDelete