Tuesday, March 16, 2010

TWD - Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tartlet

Tuesdays with Dorie is a wonderful group of bakers who are baking and blogging their way through Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. Each week, one of the group hosts and that means she or he gets to pick the recipe that hundreds of us make and write about. Pretty cool, huh?

This week was Rachelle's turn. Rachelle's blog is Mommy? I'm Hungry! She writes about cooking, baking, does product reviews and has an astonishing number of giveaways. If I had to go to the post office (my least favorite place to go, less than the DMV) as often as she does, I would have already lost my mind.

But you're not here to read about my dislike of the post office (unless you're a professional and can offer advice). You're here for my adorable if badly executed soft chocolate tart. And with "chocolate" in the name of the recipe, you'd think I would have knocked this one out when the recipes were first announced. Not at all. Late last night, I turned off the TV and got to work. I had a mini tart shell in the freezer (not Dorie's recipe nor nut-based, but ready to go). I made a quarter of the recipe for the filling in 2 small dishes in the microwave, one for melting the chocolate and one for heating the cream and butter. All went well until the last two seconds of heating the butter/cream mixture when it went blurp in the microwave. Some of my best cleaning happens during these late night baking mishaps.

Since I was making a tartlet, I couldn't scatter the raspberries in the shell and pour the ganache over them, they would just be too tall. So I embraced their stature and stood them up in the ganache. My tartlet was done after about 25 minutes at convection bake 275. Letting it cool was torturous because it was late, I was tired and I wanted to sample it. Would it be soft? Would my decision to go bittersweet or go home pay off? Would the graininess of the sugar be less noticeable than it was when I licked the bowl? Would I be able to get a decent photo in the dead of night?

It was indeed soft, and delicious still warm from the oven. My tartlet didn't have a silky texture, which I missed, but it was still good.

If you'd like the recipe, Rachelle has it here. And you can find the other TWD bakers here.

20 comments:

Pamela said...

Late night baking and cleaning with Leslie. :o) The tart looks pretty good. Some day you have to try those snickery squares. Man, they're sweet...but pretty tasty!

natalia said...

Ciao ! How cute your little one is !!!

Emma said...

I do love raspberries! This tartlet looks adorable, it really does.

Soy*Baby said...

Your little tart is adorable. I like how the raspberries are standing up in the chocolate. I feel like I'm always cleaning up overflowing oatmeal out of my microwave.

Mimi said...

Your tart is lovely with the raspberries peeking up at you.
Mimi

Valerie Gamine said...

Tartlets are adorable! I'm sorry you missed out on that silk texture but that filling is good enough to eat raw. :)

CB said...

Oh man. I hear ya about late night baking+cleaning. Been there. Done that. Probably will do it again in the future. Actually you can bet on it. Maybe I should buy stock in Lysol. I use it enough! Personally I love that your raspberries are peeking through your chocolate. I think the red and the brown look so purdy together. Great job!
-CB
http://iheartfood4thought.com

Anonymous said...

Your tartlet looks cool with the raspberries standing up like that.

AmyRuth said...

I wondered about the sugar as well. I have a chocolate tart recipe from Maida Heatter that I really love. This one was really simple though and I look forward to making it again so I can have some this time. Great story and I always tell myself "it's just baking." Right?
Good job
AmyRuth

Hanaâ said...

Your tartlette looks great. I love choc and raspberries!

Cakelaw said...

I love your tartlette - the little raspberries poking up through the chocolate look amazing.

Unknown said...

I think your tartlette looks so adorable! Late night baking is always an adventure. You go, girl!

Unknown said...

I love to see the raspberries peeking through the chocolate in your tart! I really, really wish they'd been in season here because I love the chocolate/raspberry combo. I'll have to revisit the recipe this summer. Oh, shucks :)

My microwave is over my oven and I'm too short to see inside of it. I periodically ask Shane to clean it but he's not always the most thorough cleaner, so I'm afraid of what I might find in there.

Jessica said...

I dislike going to the post office, too, but I'll pick the post office over the DMV 6 days a week and twice on Sundays. The DMV is the WORST!

Anyway, your tartelette looks fantastic. I love that you can see the raspberries poking through.

margot said...

Cute little tartlet! You were a whole day ahead of me, I didn't make it until tonight, luckily it was an easy one.

I'm always so annoyed when I have to spend my lunch break waiting in line at the post office; I guess it's good I've only had one giveaway on my blog.

Diana's Cocina said...

I love chocolate and raspberries! How perfect.

Susan said...

I love your raspberries standing all tall and proud! I used bittersweet and semi-sweet in my tart and think it was perfect!

Rachelle S said...

Thanks for baking along with me this week and stopping by my blog. =)

first I have to say that I rarely go to the post office, I make my PR reps send out the gifts from their company. I hate going there justy to buy stamps! lol

I love your little tart, everyone is doing them. I must must must find me some tartlet tins! So glad you enjoyed this.

Katrina said...

I can't wait to make this tart sometime with the raspberries. Everyone's seem to look so good, yors included.

Kayte said...

I thought my raspberries would cook down or something in the baking process, but they didn't...they stayed all perky and upright. I wasn't really expecting that part. Guys liked this okay, but not Top 10. I can think of a whole lot of things to do with raspberries other than cover them in chocolate! LOL. Your little tart looks very elegant and lovely.