Last week we went on a picnic with our two teenage nieces. From past family celebrations, I have learned that both girls are fans of chocolate. I know, I know. It’s totally rare that teenage girls love chocolate, right? Good thing I am in tune with the teens…

So I knew for the picnic that we had to have something ridiculously chocolate-y. I found a recipe from Everyday Food for salted chocolate tartlets. This was a good start, but clearly not the decadence that was my aim. But what if I made them with chocolate pie dough? A plan was born.

I found this great recipe from the food.com website which I adapted slightly to fit my needs.

Chocolate Pie Dough

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp espresso powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbsp unsalted, cold butter

3 large egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

  1. Whisk together first five ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder and salt).
  2. Cut cold butter into small pieces.
  3. Cut butter into flour and continue cutting until mixture is crumbly.
  4. Mix together egg yolks and vanilla in separate bowl.
  5. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Pour egg yolks into the well.
  6. Using a fork, mix together until moist crumbs are formed.
  7. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, no longer than two minutes.
    Note: When I put the dough on the floured surface, I was sure I had wrecked the recipe. It did not look like dough at all, just crumbs. I began to knead and slowly a smooth dough formed. Magic!
  8. Form dough into a disk.
  9. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  10. After chilling is complete, remove and place on floured surface. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
  11. Using a round cookie cutter (or an upside down glass), cut out circles of dough, approx. 3 1/2 inch in diameter.
  12. Press dough rounds into a regular muffin tin.
  13. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place muffin tin in freezer and freeze until firm, at least 10 minutes.
  14. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the dough comes out clean.
  15. Cool completely in the pan.

Chocolate Filling

Ingredients

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

coarse salt

  1. In a medium heatproof bowl, combine chocolate chips with 1/2 tsp salt.
  2. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a bare simmer over medium high heat.
  3. Once it is barely simmering, pour cream over chocolate and add vanilla.
  4. Stir gently until mixture is completely smooth.
  5. Pour chocolate into cooled shells.
  6. Refrigerate (or freeze) until set, at least 20 minutes.

Double Chocolate Decadence

My nieces liked the tarlets, but I LOVED them.

 

The filling is smooth and rich. It reminds me of chocolate pudding, but thicker and just plain better. Maybe a chocolate custard?

 

And the crust? Oh the crust! It’s crumbly but not dry. Rich but not too sweet. Buttery but not greasy. In essence, the perfect pie crust.

We made twelve tartlets. Each of us ate one so I was left with eight. Now normally, I would have send them home with the girls to share with their parents. Sorry Steve and Ronelle, Badger Girl isn’t sharing this time.

I put them in the freezer and have found that if I take one out when we start dinner, it has thawed perfectly by the time my sweet tooth is calling to me.

I haven’t decided if these will be used again for entertaining. I suspect entertaining will be my excuse to make them, but only if we are going to have a few guests because I want to make sure that I will have leftovers.


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