TWD:Julia. Chocolate Truffle Tarts

Wow. That's a bad picture. I was in a hurry, and didn't take pictures as I was going along. And the one picture that actually came out makes this tart look pretty bad. Gotta work on my photography.

I was actually scared about making this tart. I went on the TWD site and was reading about other experiences in making the tart. Mostly about how the crust was crumbly and messy. I only had a small amount of time to make the tart. I was worried this was going to be a disaster.

But it really wasn't. My crust was beautiful. I made it in the food processor. No extra water. When I poured it out onto the Silpat and mashed it out onto the surface as the recipe indicated, the dough came together nicely. After refrigerating it, it rolled out beautifully. I had a little trouble getting it into the really large pan (I used a 12-inch tart pan because I didn't have small tart pans, and my daughter calculated that the volume of a 12-inch tart pan was about the same as 6 4.5-inch pans).

I don't have a double boiler, so I just melted the butter and chocolate in the microwave. It took a while for the egg yolks to beat--about 15 minutes. I was imagining doing it with a whisk, as indicated in the recipe. Whisking for about an hour. That sounds fun.

I used chopped Hershey's chocolate, chopped Ghirardelli white chocolate, chopped toffee-almond biscotti, and used 70% bittersweet for the melted chocolate. And I have to say this is about the most intensely chocolate thing I have ever eaten. Pretty tasty in very small quantities.

Natalie and I were the only ones who ate any. Cassandra--the chocolate lover--was at her grandma's house. She missed out, because I'm taking the leftovers to choir!