Tuesdays With Dorie : Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Here comes the second recipe I baked for Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) : Chocolate Truffle Tartlets from Baking With Julia..

I baked these tartlets for the Valentine's Day dinner that I prepared for my husband.. And it was a big success within our small (2 people) family.. I don't know what we were expecting but we could not stop raving about how good it tastes after every bite.. As soon as we finished eating, I even called my friend who is also baking with TWD at the blog myyellowcookbook to tell her that this recipe is amazing.. It is very rich in chocolate (as one may guess - 4 different type of chocolate goes in it from cacao powder to white chocolate) but not too sweet with a very melting in your mouth texture but also has crunchy bits inside from biscotti and also a cookie like crust.. Well, best of everything :)

Instagram by Ferda: Preparing the crust 

From the start I was a bit intimidated by the recipe, mainly because I had not made pie crust before and this calls for 6 small ones.. I started the recipe with preparing the crust.. Making it in the food processor seemed much easier so I opted for that.. Mixing the ingredients was very easy with the food processor, but unfortunately my crust stayed very crumbly even after chilling it in the fridge for half an hour.. I guess I should have included couple more teaspoons of iced water as mentioned by some of the bakers in TWD blog.. Learning number 1 for the next time : May need to include a bit more iced water if the crust is too crumbly.. Because it was impossible to roll my very crumbly crust, I pressed it down my tartlet pans as you would do with graham cracker crust.. It turned out fine, crust was more cookie like than tender because of this change..

Instagram by Ferda: Fresh out of the oven

The filling is a very decadent combination of 70% chocolate, butter, a lot of (8 to be exact) egg yolks, a bit sugar and vanilla extract.. Then as if this was not enough, white chocolate, milk chocolate and biscotti pieces were folded into the batter.. The amount of my filling was more than sufficient to fill six 4 inch tartlet pans, and I overfilled the tartlets as I hate throwing away food.. The result was mushroom like tops for the tartlets.. Learning number 2 : Do not fill the tartlets over the crust level..

Although it was not easy to wait, I did not taste my tartlets until the end of our dinner.. Conclusion: these chocolate truffle tartlets are heavenly.. Not too sweet, but rich, smooth and crunchy, with white chocolate and milk chocolate explosions in your mouth (mine were still a bit melted inside), and almond flavor coming thru with the biscotti pieces in it.. It satisfied every expectation that we had from the dessert course, and one was enough for both of us.. And also it went perfectly with the last sips of Australian Shiraz that we were having for dinner..

I saved one tartlet in the fridge for the next day and froze the rest.. My observation is that even though they still taste rich and delicious after refrigerating and freezing, they lose their melting in your mouth texture..

I will definately bake this recipe again when I have some guests over.. For now I am using the stock in my freezer when needed/craved :)

For the recipe, please visit the blogs of this week's hosts: A Whisk and A Spoon, spike.does.stuff, Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats and cookbookhabit. Or Page 382 of the 'Baking With Julia'.

Looking forward to posting the next recipe in two weeks..

Korova Cookies...

Here is another recipe that I tried last weekend... The original recipe is from Dorie Greenspan like the French Apple Cake recipe I posted today... I found this one at Cafe Fernando, and had my eyes on it for a while now...

These cookies are sent from heaven for those who love chocolate and especially bitter chocolate... I personally am not a big fan of chocolate desserts or bitter chocolate, but still liked a lot the cruncy texture of these cookies and also the salt after taste due to some sea salt in the recipe (The recipe recommends fleur de sel, but tells that can be substituted for sea salt)... I guess I should buy one of Dorie Greenspan's books - if all of her recipes are this straight forward and end results are this good it will worth the purchase...

Below is the original recipe from Cafe Fernando, with my comments in parentheses and italic... Another good thing about the recipe is that you can freeze half of the dough and use later... It can be kept frozen for a month...


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KOROVA COOKIES RECIPE
recipe from “Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City’s Best Pastry Shops” by Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients
Yields 28 cookies (half of my dough made 11 cookies, a bit less than what Cafe Fernando says, I might have cut my cookies bigger than his)

1+1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used ordinary cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (120 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (I used sea salt)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits (I used 70% chocolate)
Method

1- Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together and keep close at hand.
2- Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the butter is soft and creamy. (I don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, so I used the dough hook of the hand mixer for the stages 2,3 and 4)
3- Add both sugars, the salt, and vanilla extract and beat for another minute or two.
4- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix only until the dry ingredients are incorporated. For the best texture, you want to work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added.
5- Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
6- Turn the dough out onto a smooth work surface and squeeze it so that it sticks together in large clumps. Gather the dough into a ball, divide it in half, and working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1-1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter.
7- Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill them for at least 2 hours. (Wrapped airtight, the logs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month.)
8- Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand.
9- Working with a sharp thin-bladed knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick.
10- Place the cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) spread space between them.
11- Bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, and bake each sheet for 12 minutes. The cookies will not look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be.
12- Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies stand until they are only just warm or until they reach room temperature.
13- Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.
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Bon Appetit! Enjoy!