TWD- Chocolate Tart

This week's TWD is for Chocolate Tartlets- 6 mini tarts. I only have a large tart pan, so I just made one big tart.

The recipe starts out with a chocolate pastry dough for the crust. It says to remove the bottom of the pan, but I didn't do that.

The filling is a made up whipped egg yolks (lots) and sugar folded into melted butter and chocolate.

The recipe calls for chopped biscotti for the filling, but I used cinnamon cookies sprinkled on top instead of folded in the filling batter.

The tart is delicious- it wasn't fudgey like I thought it would be. It was smooth and creamy and was a hit at home and with some friends!
 Steph, Spike, Jaime and Jessica will have the recipe!

TWD- Crunchy, Custardy Peach Tart

You know what's frustrating? Making the TWD recipe, taking pictures, going to blog about the recipe, and not being able to find the pictures. I made this a couple weeks ago for dessert for a family party. It was a hit. I think it could've used more custard- mine was a pretty thin layer. Topped with whipped cream, it was amazing! Rachel has the recipe!
Aaaannnnddd.....

Today is this girl's birthday! We're going to Disneyland!

(Go here for the dog birthday party)! 

TWD- Quick Berry Tart

I think I'm going to have to go with CB on this- not really that "quick." The tart shell comes together quickly, the pastry cream comes together fairly quickly, but by the time you add that up, not so quick.

But oh, so worth it.

Put plainly, you need to make this.

 Now.

Go to Cristine's blog for the recipe.

Now.

TWD- Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

The picture of this week's TWD looks so amazing. I've been wanting to make it ever since I bought the book. Unfortunately, we don't normally have nuts in my house so I never got around to making it. So of course I was excited when Carla of Chocolate Moosey picked it for this week. Caramel, peanuts, chocolate ganache in a flaky tart? YUM!
The recipe is broken into three parts- the tart dough, the caramel, and the ganache. The tart is pretty straight forward- it all comes together in a food processor. I used a springform pan because I don't have a tart pan (I know, I need to get one!).
The caramel component was problematic for me. It doesn't require a thermometer- accroding to the instructions, you can just judge by the way the mixture looks. I let my cook too long- it ended up greasy and clumpy. So the second time I made it, I skipped the last 2 minute cook and took it off the heat after adding the cream. It worked great- a smooth, workable caramel that spread easily in the tart.The ganache was beautiful- shiny, smooth. I couldn't wait to try it.
I know I might get some flak here, but I wasn't crazy about it. I didn't think the caramel/peanut layer made enough of a showing- the inch of ganache overshadowed it so it just tasted like chocolate tart. Maybe it was because I made it in a nonconforming pan? Next time I would prefer a thicker caramel/peanut layer and a thinner ganache layer. Head to Carla's blog for the recipe!