twd: chocolate cream tart

Posted April 28th by Kara | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Dorie #4: Kim of Scrumptious Photography decided on the Chocolate Cream Tart on pages 352 and 353.

As with last week’s recipe, I made only 1/2 of this. Actually, I wound up making a full recipe of the tart crust before I remembered, but I think it’ll keep in the freezer and I’m sure I can find a use for it at some point.

I also made them in the cutest little tart pans I picked up at Cooks Warehouse last weekend. (I gotta say, TWD has played merry hell with my kitchen gadget habit. I was doing so well with clearing out stuff I no longer use – and now I’m refilling that room with adorable little tart pans, springform pans in all sizes, and more spatulas – because you can never have too many spatulas!)

First step was to make the chocolate tart shells and pre-bake them. I did this the night before. I didn’t use the foil when I prebaked them; I just let them puff up and then quickly pressed them down when I removed them from the oven. As they cooled, they held their shape nicely.

I’m really in love with the cuteness of these tarts and I took quite a few photos. I also had a little dough left over which I just threw on the pan to make into cookies. I found out that this is not a terribly sweet dough – which makes sense, since it’s a base for a creamy, sweet filling – so it doesn’t make great cookies. It does, however, lend itself to being photographed over and over and over.

Ok, ok, I’m stepping away from the tart shells.

Next I made the filling, which is the same basic recipe as the Banana Cream Pie filling from a few weeks ago – except with white sugar instead of brown, and with added chocolate. As with that filling, my custard never came to a boil before it thickened, but this time I was prepared for it and as soon as everything began to thicken up, I pulled it off the stove and whisked to save my life. And it turned out perfectly.

Then I started playing. The first tart I made and piped the whipped cream in a pretty pattern. Oh, and btw, this is how we pipe things in my household – with a star tip stuck into the corner of a Ziplock sandwich bag!

(As an aside: I find the proportion of powdered sugar to cream in Dorie’s recipes makes a whipped cream that is too sweet for my taste. I reduced the sugar by 1/2 and it came out much more to my taste.)

Then I played some more – making variations of the tart. The first was as described in the book, with the whipped cream topping spread edge-to-edge over the chocolate filling.

Then just the plain chocolate filling without any whipped cream.

And finally, I took the remaining filling and the remaining whipped cream and mixed them together in a big swirly pile, which I filled the last tart shell with.

I have to say that all of these variations worked for me, but I was most fond of the last one with the cream and filling swirled together. It was just perfect. And then H brought home some strawberries, which got dipped in the chocolate and whipped cream mixture and that was pretty much the end of that.

I’d say this recipe was a huge success and will definitely be made again, especially if I need a dessert that looks super fancy but doesn’t take a whole lot of time and effort. I might even use smaller tart molds to make little treats.

I really had fun with this and all the variations!

No nutritional info because (a) I forgot to input it and (b) I’m not about to ruin a good thing with too much knowledge. I’m sure it’s a lot of calories. I don’t care!

The recipe is available in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Enjoy!

27 comments on twd: chocolate cream tart

Nancy/n.o.e
April 28th, 2009

I’m having so much fun seeing all of the fun that you had with the tarts, the crusts, the variations. But no pictures of the strawberries? This is an impressive recipe and oh-so-delicious. Beautiful pics.
Nancy

Amanda Formaro
April 28th, 2009

Wow those minis are awesome! I know I will have to make this recipe again, it was so delish!

Jessica
April 28th, 2009

I love all of the different variations that you made. I had to laugh about your spatula comment — I am a spatula *freak* and I really believe that you can’t have too many of them. I love the kitchen gadgets too. You and I are the people that cookware stores dream of.

steph (whisk/spoon)
April 28th, 2009

yum yum! i like the looks of that last tart, too!

Babette
April 28th, 2009

Wow. I love love love the photos and the variations, especially the swirled topping.

Clivia
April 28th, 2009

You’re a girl who knows how to have fun with food! And many thanks for not doing the calorie count. Glad you enjoyed.

Sihan
April 28th, 2009

I love the variations on your blog! my gosh. and i think my favourite one would have to be the plain one though. Great job with the decorating too! tell you what… i do the tip at the end of a ziplock bag sometimes too! ssshh. don’t tell!

Angela@spinachtiger
April 28th, 2009

What a cool idea to swirl them together. This was so good. I, too, buy too many baking items and also did the mini-tart thing. So fun.

Amy (Sing for your supper)
April 28th, 2009

Oh how fun! I love all of your cute little tarts – looks like you enjoyed this week! I know I did!

Chris
April 28th, 2009

Love the variation with the cream swirled in! The tartlet pans are super cute too – I need to pick some up. Fabulous job!

Jennifer
April 28th, 2009

OH MY! I want the swirly pie! Your tarts look wonderful! And I agree, TWD’ing does play “merry hell” with the kitchen gadget/baking apparatus accumulation…but who can resist.:)

Sugar B
April 28th, 2009

Your tarts look sooooooooooooooo good! I love your pictures!

My calorie count is in my belly. YUM!

Katrina
April 28th, 2009

How fun! I REALLY like the idea of your last tart with the swirled in cream! Seeing everyone’s tarts makes me really want to try this one again, and use a less bitter chocolate.
GREAT job!

Beryl
April 28th, 2009

Chocolate is almost as addicting to photograph as it is to eat. Love the the swirl idea.

Cathy
April 28th, 2009

Your tarts look gorgeous – what great pictures! Love your swirls. Yeah, I’ve picked up a nasty specialty pan habit since joining TWD – comes with the territory, I guess. But just look at those cute tartlettes — see, all worth it!

Jill
April 28th, 2009

Thank you so much for not posting the nutritional info! : ) All of your variations look great, and your photos are beautiful!

Jaime
April 28th, 2009

cute tarts! i have to say i love the marbled look!

Margot
April 29th, 2009

I love all your different variations (you really can’t go wrong with this recipe) and your photos are gorgeous. I need to convince myself that I don’t need every single baking pan available.

HappyTummy
April 29th, 2009

i can see why you took so many pictures of the pie shells–they’re adorable in their little tart pans! i love how you were able to play with different arrangements of the tarts. weren’t they so tasty?

Jacque
April 29th, 2009

I know what you mean about being ready when cooking the filling… it went from soupy to thick in an instant (again).

Mmmm, all of your variations look wonderful. Just proves, it’s OK to play with your food after all.

Lynne
April 29th, 2009

I wish I had thought to swirl the cream in! Your pics are great.

Holly
April 29th, 2009

I almost did the swirled version too but decided to wait til I could make an oreo crust. It looks delish! BTW the tart dough makes great shortbread cookies!

Kayte
April 29th, 2009

Oh how perfect these all look…wow. I love the little tutorials people put on the their entries to show how something is done…I learn so much. Your tartlets look so good…I just love those little tartlets!