TUESDAYS WITH DORIE, Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

The beauty of this recipe is that each bite is slightly different. Sometimes you get the taste of the amaretti cookies, or it’s the flavor of the chunks of milk and white chocolate. The pate sucrée crust is tender and delicate.

The recipe is in Baking with Julia and the chef is David Ogonowski. After searching the internet I did not discover any current information about him. The cookbook mentions that he was a chef at Olives Restaurant in Charleston, MA and was hoping to open his own bakery. Maybe other bloggers will have discovered what he is currently doing. He does have great recipes.

The reality of this recipe is that it uses lots of equipment and pans. Witness my sink after cooking:

You begin by making a chocolate pate sucrée dough. I chose to use my Magimix food processor. I always get great pie crust when I use a food processor. The dough ends up looking like dirty sand but you push it across your work surface until it begins to come together. The fancy French term is fraisage.

The dough is chilled, then rolled out and fit into 4″ tart pans. Be sure to use removable bottom pans. My were solid and I lined them with thin parchment strips so I could lift them out. Much easier with removable bottoms.

The filling requires melting chocolate and butter in a double boiler and then folding the cooled chocolate into eggs yolks that have been beaten with a bit of sugar until very thick. Now, I don’t have a double boiler but do not feel sorry for me. I have a lovely copper pot that I balance on a pot and it does a super job of melting anything.

I used the 7 quart Kitchen Aid mixer for the eggs and was amazed that it took less than 5 minutes to thicken. Usually its 10 minutes to achieve thick, ribbon forming egg and sugar batter. I do like the 7 quart; I’ll hate taking it back to work. The chocolate mixture and the beaten egg are folded together and then chopped amaretti cookies, milk and white chocolate chunks are added to the batter.

After filling the pre-baked shells there was lots of leftover batter. I buttered two little silicone cups and filled them with the excess. The baking time for the tarts was 15 minutes in my oven but it is slow. Just don’t overbake them.

 

The tarts are very fragile. You can see the parchment strips that made it easier to remove the tarts. Handle with care. They are very tasty and I’m glad to have baked them. Tom is traveling so he is missing these but I am freezing one tart for him.  We will see how well the tart holds up in the freezer when Tom returns from his trip.

You can find the complete recipe at one of our hosts:

Cookbookhabit

Spikebakes

Better yet, buy a copy of the book and cook along with us. We are over 300 strong, we would love to have you join us.

Bon Appétit!!