TWD - BWJ #2: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

I think it's time I officially admit that I am utterly incapable of not making things overly-complicated. The second Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking with Julia recipe was Chocolate Truffle Tartlets (pp 382-383), and that in and of itself was apparently not enough for me--I had to go and do it six different ways.

Oh, yes, I said six: citrus almond biscotti, four-chocolate biscotti, mint, orange, espresso, and all of these sans the white chocolate (I guess I could have said I did it 10 different ways but that just seemed like exaggeration). And of course the day I decide to do this is the day I'm informed that yet more work has to be done on my car, but I digress.

In order to accomplish this feat of diversity, I used my mini brioche molds to make mini tartlets and just divided the filling in five parts before adding the chocolate, biscotti and extra ingredients (then I used half of each mixture, added the white chocolate and used the remaining halves to fill the other five mini tart shells).

You can find the recipe on the blogs of this week's hosts: A Whisk and a Spoon, Spike Bakes, Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats, and cookbookhabit.

I combined the dry ingredients in a bowl...

...and used my hands to cut in the butter.

Then I wrapped it in plastic and popped it into the fridge while I raced around town trying to get my car taken care of.

Next I assembled the many things that I would put into the fillings.

And then it was time to roll out the dough... (I did half of them about 1/4" thick and half of them 1/8" thick since 1/4" seemed awfully thick--this might have been fine in a 4" tin but not in the minis.)

...put it into the brioche tins...

...and remove the excess dough.

Ten little tartlets in all.

Mmmmm, the melting together of chocolate and butter. Personally, I'm of the opinion that butter makes EVERYTHING better.

Whipping the egg yolks and sugar until it was thick took forever. Seriously. Forever.

The folding together of the chocolate and egg/sugar mixture seemed to take a while, too. Maybe it's just because it was already 9 PM and I was a little tired and a lot hungry.

Five different bowls for five different flavors.

The unbaked tartlets actually look really yummy. I love the texture of the biscotti.

The cooling of the tartlets also seemed to take...wait for it...FOREVER.

Two sets of five tartlets. I was so excited to use the candied blood orange peel I'd made earlier in the day.

After all this work, I'm sad to say that I wasn't wowed by these tartlets. I like the dough well-enough, but the filling just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I think when I put the biscotti in the filling mixture I was hoping there would still be some crunch in the final product, but it was crunch-less, and rather dense. Jake liked them (he rated them an 8 out of 10) so I assume they turned out correctly, I just prefer a lighter filling, more along the lines of pastry cream or chocolate mousse.

For the record, we both preferred them with the thinner crust and without the white chocolate; the four-chocolate biscotti, orange and espresso were Jake's overall favorites. You can check out all the other bakers' variations at the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

Since I'd only used half of the tart dough, I decided to repurpose it. I was originally thinking in the direction of chocolate crunch sandwich cookies, and true to form, I tried them 3 different ways: chocolate-orange, chocolate mint and Nutella. But none of them were GREAT, so I went back to the drawing board.

As cacao nibs are one of my current kitchen obsessions, I decided to press a few into the cut cookies before I baked them; a few cookies also got a sprinkling of instant espresso powder. Both variations are terrific--they almost have the texture of shortbread cookies without being quite so buttery. I love them with the extra kick from the espresso and Jake prefers them without, but each is very tasty in its own way. The espresso adds a slightly (pleasantly) bitter dimension to the cookies, while the plain cacao version is very chocolate-y without being super sweet.

Jake rated these a 9 out of 10, so I've already made them again!

Chocolate Cacao Thins

Yield 75 thins

Ingredients

• 1 recipe chocolate tart dough (Baking With Julia, p 372)
• 1/4 c cacao nibs
• 2 T instant espresso powder (optional)

Directions

1. Follow the directions for the tart dough through the first chill.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Remove the dough from the fridge and break it into 4-6 smaller pieces. Squeeze a small portion of the dough in your hands a few times to warm it up so it's just maleable.
4. Roll it out to 1/8"-1/16" thickness and, using a 2" round cookie cutter, make as many cookies as you can.
5. Sprinkle cacao nibs over the cookies and press gently. If transferring the cookies to a cookie sheet, use a dough scraper to gently lift the cookies up and onto the sheet. If they break a bit you can just press them back together.
6. Once all the cookies are cut and on the sheet, use two fingers to sprinkle espresso powder over them if desired.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing the cookies to a cooling rack. The cookies will rise up in the middle and become convex; it's totally normal.