BAKING

CHOCOLATE TARTLETS…Mini pastry shells filled with chocolate ganache.

“If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you’re eating it too slowly.”
Author Unknown
IMG 0765 CHOCOLATE TARTLETS…
Mini pastry tarts filled with a ganache, topped with marzipan.
Ever since I’ve seen these mini bites, I’ve been fascinated by the little things & was looking for an opportunity to make them. There’s something very attractive about single sweet morsels because each piece has a ‘complete‘ look . Eventually made them for the daughter’s birthday, & coordinated them to match the colours & look of her ‘YIN YANG Chocolate Cake‘, pictured below.
collageThe recipe for the pastry cases / pie shells is from a quaint little book of contemporary recipes called ‘What’s Cooking Chocolate’ by Jacqueline Bellefontaine. I made these & some jam tartlets too, using the same pastry recipe. On Latha’s request, am posting these as soon as I can.
collage3Here’s the recipe as adapted from her book…
Ingredients:
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Butter – 1/3 cup ; chilled & cut into pieces
Castor Sugar – 1 tbsp
Chilled water – 3-4 tbsp
collage3
Method:
  • Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
  • Rub in the chilled butter with your fingertips to get a breadcrumb like mix.
  • Stir in the sugar.
  • Add enough water to make a soft dough.
  • Cover & chill for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
  • Roll out to 1/8″ thickness, cut with a round 3″ cookie cutter (use appropriate size cutter) & line the mini muffin trays with them.
  • Cover the pastry with foil, put in pie weights ( I used beans) & bake blind for 15 minutes approximately till light brown. Remove immediately from trays.
  • Cool completely on racks & store in an airtight tin until use. I made mine 3 days in advance.
  • I made 24 mini tart shells, & rolled out the rest of the dough out for jam tartlets. Got about 12-15 small shells.

IMG 0705

  • Make a ganache. When I made a ganache to frost the cake with, I made some extra to cut down on work. Ganache keeps in the fridge for 4-5 days. You can microwave it for 30 seconds to get the required consistency as it sets/hardens when chilled.
  • Pipe or spoon into the shells.

IMG 0529

  • Top with marzipan embellishments. I made mine from scratch. You can find the recipe here. Alternatively, top with chocolate scrolls, leaves, sprinkles etc.
  • Keep under refridgeration until use. These can be prepared 2-3 days in advance.

collage4

These little tarts were a big hit with the kids…the son had ‘reserved’ the lady-bug one in advance, & went on to take another one for good measure!!

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

9 Comments

  • Sukanya M

    Hi deeba,

    i just finished drooling over all the pixs on ur blog. I wld like to invite you to the arusuvai friendship chain. If you accept, I send you a secret ingredient and you make or bake a dish and blog about it and pass it on. I have been invited by crazy curry and will be posting my dish shortly! If you agree, write to me at saintfaron@yahoo.com

  • Latha

    These are very charming, Deeba:) they’ll make very good treat for easter too (i’m planning something for my boy’s nursery). And i must say your step-by-step collage is great… easy to follow than any books. I haven’t made a tart (or tartlets) until now… must try this soon. I’ll for sure let you know the results.

  • Ann

    Hi there! Thanks for stopping by The Mini Pie Revolution Headquarters! We will be announcing the next event Small Tarts Have Big hearts tomorrow and hope you will participate!

    Ann at Redacted Recipes

  • Latha

    Dear Deeba,

    My heartfelt wishes to you and your lovely family for a wonderful new year! May the baking fairy smile more at you this year too…

    A recipe that I had requested early 2008 and never got around trying them out! I am really ashamed… but but they came in handy to celebrate 2009 with our friends.

    The mini-tart shells were really a breeze to make. The colour, the texture… absolutely gorgeous. Instead of the ganache filling, i made a custard powder sauce with some clementines thrown in and just a slice of roasted walnut to top… they were really lovely. Thank you very much, as always, Deeba, for sharing such treasures with us.

    Tomorrow i am baking a batch of the olive oil biscotti and chocolate bretzels.. it’ll be a surprise package for my mom through my husband:)

  • Passionate About Baking

    Hi, thanks for stopping by. Wish I had an email address I could reach you at. 1/3 cup=75gms. You can find conversions online on many sites. One of them is
    Take care, & all the best with your baking!

  • Anonymous

    Hello Deeba,
    Am hooked on to baking these days and you have a wonderful collection of cake, pie, tarts recipes.
    Have a small doubt,
    can you tell me how much is 1/3 cup of butter in gms?

    Thanks in advance.

  • ramya

    Deeba hats off to you!!!!tried it and came out great…..made a few changes though….did a marie biscuit crumb crust,added a tbsp of butter to the fresh cream,used bournville rich cocoa and dairy milk chocolate(half n' half) and baked it in a regular,removable bottom pie dish.The awefully,sinfully,delightfully rich chocolate pie was gone in no time and all that was left was ooomphs and drools for more….

  • Hyundai Middle East

    That's really an interesting thing!Things blogged here are highly creative!!!!Hats off to your creativity!!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

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