September Challenge on Baking Eggless - Ferrero Rocher Tarts

On my first visit to Malaysia, I almost bought a big box of "Ferero Rocher" at an unbelievable price, only to realize that it is a duplicate product (note the missing "R") at the time of billing. The box, the logo, the wrapping, everything looked authentic. Such was the fascination for these lovely smooth, nutty flavoured chocolates, that I was terribly disappointed then. I fondly remember the times that I bit into these yummy chocolate, every time I taste nutella. I was super excited to see this month's challenge for the same reason and enjoyed this one every step along the way. 

We typically have a few approaches to problem solving in computer science. The most popular trick is to modularize or break down problems into smaller sub-problems, solve the smaller problems and combine those solutions to obtain the final solution. This is called the "divide-and-conquer" approach. I practically adapted the same for making these tarts. 

Four components to the tart and each one a lengthy procedure by itself with a proofing or chilling period. It had to be done this way in my completely chaotic and disorganized kitchen. 

So looking at the recipe, it seemed simple enough. Roast hazelnuts and caramelize them. Except that hazelnuts are not available in this part of the world. So that left me the option to go with walnuts or almonds and I picked walnuts. Next was the Chocolate Hazelnut Thing - I had to again use Nutella here. That seemed simple enough. The tart shells were a regular affair. That seemed fine too.

The tricky part seemed to be the Hazelnut Mousse. Making eggless custard was not the problem here. Haven't we been making custards eggless in this part of the world from ever since I can remember? For me, the tricky part was the use of gelatin. I had never used gelatin before and I was not sure how long it takes to set. I should have probably made the mousse first, instead of making everything else and waiting for the mousse the set. Hmm... Lesson learnt. 

Please bear with the lengthy post and read on till the end. I promise you there is a point to my philandering ways ;)

Please find the original recipe from Trissalicious at the given link. I am presenting the converted-to-eggless and scaled-down-by-half recipe here:

First the tart base. Probably you should bake this last. 

Tart base adapted from Matt Moran:

Ingredients: (converted from weight to volume)

Cocoa powder - 6 tbsp

Cold butter - 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp

Caster Sugar - 3 tbsp

Egg - 1 ( replace with 3-4 tbsp of cream)

All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Place the butter, caster sugar, cocoa powder in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
2. Add the cream, flour and baking powder and process until the mixture just comes together.
3. Lay the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a disc measuring around 2 cm in height. 4. Cover with plastic wrap and place int he refrigerator for an hour to rest.
5. Place the dough back on to a lightly floured surface and roll out until around 2 mm thick.
6. Cut the dough into circles, 1 cm wider than the shell, to form the wall.

7. Place the cut dough in the tart shells and allow to refrigerate for another 1 hour.
8. When ready, blink bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C.
9. Once done, bake for another 5 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool.







Hazelnut Mousse (adapted from Baking and Pastry, Culinary Institute of America):
Ingredients
Milk - 3/4 cup
Caster sugar - 3 tbsp
Omit the 1 1/2 eggs from the original recipe.
Cornflour - 2 tbsp
Nutella - 2 tbsp
Cream - 1/2 cup
Gelatin - 1 tsp

Method

1. Mix the sugar and cornflour with about 1/4 cup of milk and make a smooth paste.
2. Heat the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and when it comes to a boil, quickly add the milk-cornflour paste stirring all the while.
3. Keep cooking until the mixture becomes thick.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
6. Mix the Nutella with the custard using a whisk.
7. Semi-whip the cream and keep aside.
8. Place the gelatin crystals in a small bowl. Pour a table spoon of water to soften the gelatin crystals.
9. Heat the gelatin bowl in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
10. Mix the gelatin into the custard.
11. Fold the custard into the whipped cream.
12. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Chocolate-Hazelnut thing (adapted from David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook)
Ingredients
Nutella - 2 tbsp
Chocolate (semi-sweet or milk) - 4 tbsp
Oil - 2 drops
Salt - 1 pinch
Corn Syrup - 1/2 tsp
Crushed Caramelized walnuts - 2 tbsp

1. Place all ingredients in a microwave bowl.
2. Microwave in 20 second intervals on high until the chocolate has melted.
3. I repeated the process twice.
4. Add the caramelized walnuts until ready to use.

Caramelized Hazelnuts
Ingredients

Sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - 1 tbsp
Toasted walnuts - 3/4 cup

1. Place walnuts on a roasting tray.
2. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes until the walnuts appear slightly browned. Slightly rearrange the walnuts in-between the microwave duration.
3. Crush the roasted walnuts.
4. Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan.
5. Add the toasted walnuts and take the pan off the heat.
6. Mix the nuts until the texture changes to become sugary.
7. Bring the pan back on the heat.
8. Mix carefully until the sugar turns into golden caramel color.
9. Place on parchment paper to cool.

Assembly
To assemble the tarts, pipe some hazelnuts mousse on to the chocolate tart shells and then top with the chocolate hazelnut thing and a few caramelized walnuts.

Verdict Given the ingredients that go into this tart, there is hardly any doubt as to how it would have tasted. The texture turned out well too. Just that I should have taken care of the order in which these components had to be made. First the hazelnut mousse, then the dough for the tart shell, caramelized nuts while the dough is chilling, chocolate hazelnut spread when the tart shells are baked and allowed to cool down. So the moral here is, even if you adopt the divide and conquer approach, the order in which you solve the sub-problems matter. 

Cheesy-Corn Tart

These are different from the Potato-cheese tarts I tried out last time. And this time around the tart shells were crisp and the stuffing juicier.

Ingredients
For the tart
Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cold, unsalted butter - 4 tbsp
Cold milk - 2 tbsp
Cold water - as needed
For the stuffing
Corn kernels - 1/2 cup
Spring onions - 1/2 bunch
Shredded Cheese - 4 tbsp
Thyme - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Cream - 1 tbsp
Method
Sift the flour and salt together. Cut the cold butter into the flour. Mix lightly with the fingertips until the dough is crumbly. Sprinkle cold milk over the crumbly dough. Add cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time and keep mixing lightly with the fingertips until the dough comes together. Roll out the dough into a thin circle. Cut out 2-3 inch circles. Line the tart tins with the circles. Cut out one more circle for the top of the tart.

Chop the spring onions finely. Boil the corn kernels. Add the spices to the spring onions and corn. Make a paste of cornflour and cream. Add the paste to the corn mixture and finally add the shredded cheese.

Place a spoonful of the stuffing into the dough-lined tart-shell and place the circle to cover the top. Seal the edges and poke holes with a fork. Brush the top with some cream.

I got 6 small tarts and one large tart with the given proportions.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees C for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Cool for 5-7 mins in the tart tin and then place on a wire rack. Serve warm.

Verdict Crisp tart shells with juicy and cheesy stuffing. I guess this will be my regular recipe for savory tarts from now on.

Best Tart - Event Announcement and a Giveaway

Hello Friends,

As mentioned in my previous post, here is the exciting event announcement. When I first started baking, I was only familiar with cup-cakes, cookies, breads and cakes. But with blog hopping and some reading I came across brownies, muffins and tarts. I understand that there was a whole new world out there and I had barely scratched the surface. I was skeptical about buying tart tins, as I was not sure if there is so much variety that I can bake with tarts. But I was wrong. Tarts are interesting. They require a pastry base and then a filling. The filling can be anything ranging from fresh berries in some syrup to something that is baked with the tart shell. With the mini tart tins without removable bottoms, the trick is to remove the tart shell without breaking. I see that tarts are not too common in blogs I visit. So I figured, I might as well host an event and encourage fellow bloggers out there to bake more of these sinfully delightful pastries.

So herez to the best tart/tartlet that one can bake.

Guidelines:
1. Bake any tart/tartlet (only sweet) of your choice. We will skip the savory quiches for this event.
2. Post the recipe (include the logo) between 1st-30th September.
3. If updating an older post, please include the logo in the post and update it.
4. You can use Eggs in the tart base or filling but no meat.

5. Send me an email at priyam41@gmail.com with the following details:
a) Your blog name
b) URL to the post
c) Your email-id

If you do not blog, feel free to send the write up of the recipe with atleast one picture to my email id.

For the giveaway:

I have a beautiful ceramic pie plate chosen from zansaar as the giveaway. I bought it a couple of months back, but I got delayed with my 100th post and the event announcement. But I am excited to even look at it. It is a beautiful bold yellow color. See for yourself at this link.
If you have an entry for the event, you automatically qualify for the giveaway.
If not, please do any of the following:
1. Subscribe to follow my blog publicly
2. Leave a comment on this post

I will post a round-up of the event and announce the winner on 10th October, 2012. So keep those entries coming, dear bakers!

Butter tarts - April challenge on Eggless-baking

This month's Eggless Baking Challenge was "Butter tarts" from my favorite reference website joyofbaking. I love tarts, I mean I love baking them, but I am very apprehensive about eating even a single tart. I have not checked myself on a weighing scale ever since I started baking and I am dreading the needle reading :(. I postponed baking this for as long as possible, but finally baked it at the end of the month, just in time for posting it; well, almost!

And yes, delicious as it turned out, I could hardly eat more than a single tiny tart. I passed on the large ones to folks at home.

Tart Crust Pastry:
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/8 - 1/4 cup (30-60ml) cold water

Method:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar, until combined using a hand mixer.
Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). 
Pour 1/8 cup (30 ml) water in a slow, steady stream, and keep whisking until the dough just holds together when pinched. If necessary, add more water. I used three tablespoons of water.

Turn the dough onto your work surface and gather into a ball. Flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour before using. This will chill the butter and relax the gluten in the flour.

Take a tablespoon full of dough and spread it in a tart tin. Fill about 10-12 tart tins, cover and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm the dough.

Fill the unbaked tart shells with the filling upto 2/3rds full. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the pastry has nicely browned and the filling is puffed and set. 
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

I used 5 small tart tins and 5 medium sized tart tins.

Original recipe - Tart Filling:

1/3 cup (70 grams) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup (210 grams) light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup (60 ml) light cream(half-and-half) (10% butterfat) 1/2 cup (120 ml) raisins or chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
I reduced the sugar here to 1/4 cup, since I used 1/4 cup condensed milk. I substituted eggs with 1/2 cup peanut butter. I omitted the nuts. Here is my eggless version:

Tart filling: 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup heavy cream 
1/4 cup condensed milk
Chocolate chips - for garnishing

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, condensed milk, butter, cream and brown sugar into a smooth paste. You got to taste it at this stage... But, watch yourself, as this is a tart filling, and you need to have enough...
Fill upto 2/3rds in the unbaked tart shells. Garnish with chocolate chips.

Verdict: Sweet buttery tarts with wonderful peanut butter filling. Awesome taste and loaded with goodness and calories ofcourse, but lets pretend otherwise!

 

October Punch - Jam Tart

  

Jam tarts... Well this is the first time I am baking tarts... I am not too fond of jam, but I decided to go with it until I get the hang of baking the tart shell...

It turns out the recipe is deceptively simple. The required quantity of flour and butter + a few drops of water, does not make a smooth dough. Adding butter to the dough, will make it very crumbly
and you can't get a single tart in full shape. Adding water to it and kneading will make the tarts hard. So the idea is to make a crumbly mixture and line the tart tins with that mix,
It eventually binds well as we line the tart tins... I got it right in the second attempt. The first time around, I added half a teaspoon butter extra and not a single tart came out of the tin intact.

Tricky as it may seem, once you get the principle right, you can't go wrong with this recipe. My little girl loved the jam. She licked all the jam alone with her finger tips and left the shells.
So I made some chocolate ganache too as the tart filling for a change. Stay tuned to see how that turned out :)

Without any more ado, here is the recipe from Ria's blog:

Ingredients:

Flour-115g - that is about 0.9 cups ( I took 1 cup sifted flour )
Butter-60g [chilled ] ( that is about 1/2 cup + 1/2 teaspoon )
Baking powder-1/2tsp
Water-4-5 drops
Jam

Method:

    Mix flour and baking powder together.
    Add the butter and rub it with your fingertips till it resembles breadcrumbs.
    Add a few drops of water but avoid kneading the dough. Even if it is crumbly it will bind well as you line the tart tins.
    Line the tart tins and fill 2/3 of the tart with jam. ( I divide the dough into 12,
and spread in each tart tin separately by rotating the tin and spreading the dough at the same time)
    Bake at 180 degress for 15 mins or till done.
    De-mould when cooled. This helps get the tart shells intact without the edges crumbling. Additionally you do not want your skin scorched by molten jam.

Tarts are ready to be devoured :)

If you are an ardent jam fan, this one is for you.


Verdict: This one is a simple yet elegant snack. A sure winner.