I was going to make a chocolate-mint tart for dessert, but we were all out of cream, so I flipped through the book looking for something relatively easy that didn't require any cream. This tasty tart fit the bill. Although I did mess it up a bit.

The recipe calls for baking at 425°F for 15 minutes followed by another 20-25 minutes at 350°F. I missed that second baking instruction and was disappointed to see that the filling was still very raw after 15 minutes. I ended up baking it for another 5 at 425°F, at which point the crust had gotten so dark it was in danger of burning and the filling was still quite raw, so I dropped the temperature down to 325°F and baked it for another 10 minutes. This did the trick, but I think that following the original baking instructions probably would've worked a bit better. Whoops!

Anyway, it was still nice overall and the Kidlet enthusiastically declared it a favourite!

Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

Crust

• 60g hazelnuts
• 140g all-purpose flour
• 30g natural cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 4-6 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 60g unsweetened chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• 1 c. corn syrup
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 225g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F)¹.
2. Grind the hazelnuts for the crust in a food processor or blender until finely chopped.
3. Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt and pulse until mixed.
4. Dump into a bowl and cut in the butter.
5. Mix in milk until a crumbly pastry forms.
6. Mix in the vanilla.
7. Press the pastry into a 23cm (9")² loose-bottomed tart tin. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
8. Melt the butter and chocolate over very low heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
9. Beat eggs with corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, and sea salt.
10. Whisk chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in hazelnuts.
11. Pour the filling mixture into the crust.
12. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15 minutes.
13. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake until filling is just set, but centre is still jiggly (20-25 minutes).
14. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
15. Serve with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

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¹ I actually started by preheating the oven to 180°C (350°F) and toasting the hazelnuts for the filling for 6 minutes, shaking every 2 minutes. After that, I set them aside and preheated the oven to 220°C (425°F) for the pie. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for using a 9.5" tart tin. I have a 9" tin and a 10" tin, but not a 9.5" one. I used my 9" tin and this seemed to work fine, although I did have a small amount of excess filling that I baked off in a custard cup alongside the pie. That said, I might be tempted to try the 10" tin next time just to see how that works out. It would result in a thinner crust and give a little more room to fit all the filling in. Probably a better fit overall. I just figured it was better to have the crust be a little too thick than to end up with not having enough pastry to adequately cover the tart tin. But now that I've had a chance to try this recipe once, I think it would be fine in the larger tin after all. ^Back