As you may have noticed, I hardly bake. I used to alot more, before I got married; brownies cakes and cookies, but they are almost always cheat-bakes… from ready-mix boxes, and even off-the-shelf tart base for my pies and tarts. I used to be very proud of my cheesecakes, but since Coffeebean turned halal, I lost the motivation to go through the trouble. I’ve always found baking from scratch too messy, and too much effort, but thanks to Happygrub’s encouragement, I paid Phoon Huat a visit for the first time (baker’s wonderland, and hubby paid too *grin*), hauled my MIL’s mixer out of the cupboard and attempted what I call Happygrub’s Chocolate Tart, cos the recipe is uniquely hers :)

This tart was Happygrub’s last bake before Baby Hana, and I’ve been bugging her for the recipe ever since. Thanks for finding the time to post it in spite of your hectic mother routine!

I’m reposting the recipe here, in its full glory, with my own notes that I gathered through SOS calls to Happygrub during the baking process. The tart is a layer of shortcrust pastry, topped with a layer of crispy hazelnut milk chocolate or praliné feuilleté, then topped with a dark chocolate glaze. The recipe below will yield two 24 cm tarts.

Shortcrust Pastry Base

The base of the tart was adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Just Desserts… a Hazelnut Shortbread recipe. One portion of the shortbread would yield two 24 cm tart shells.

Ingredients
200g plain flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
125g unsalted butter, softened
90g caster sugar
1 large free-range egg, beaten
50g finely ground roasted hazelnuts

Method
Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Gradually work in the egg. With the mixer on its slowest setting, add the flour a spoonful at a time, then the nuts. Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together. Divide into two and put the dough in two large (1 litre) ziplock bags, roll it out so that it fills the bag and makes a flat square, then freeze it for 1.5hrs. When frozen, cut away the ziplock bags and cut away the sides to the shape of your tart pan. Press the dough into 2 tart pans with false bottoms. Don’t forget to grease the pan all over, including the sides! Prick base all over with a fork, Bake at 180C for 25-30 mins till golden and sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to cool.

Praliné Feuilleté and Dark Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients
Praliné Feuilleté (a Pierre Hermes recipe):
200g Nutella
50g milk chocolate, melted
80g feuilletine (substitute with crèpes gavottes or rice crispies)
15g butter, melted

In a bowl mix the Nutella, melted milk chocolate, feuilettine and melted butter.

Dark Chocolate Glaze:
200g Valrhona Guanaja,melted (I used Phoon Huat’s couverture dark chocolate chips)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl.

Assembly
Spread a layer of the praline feuilette at the base of each tart. Leave to chill in the fridge till firm, at least an hour. Top with chocolate glaze and leave to set for another hour. Before serving, leave tart out to thaw for at least ten minutes.

happygrub tart

And that’s the final outcome of my tart (mis)adventures. As you can probably tell from the recipe, from the start till the end, it probably takes at least 4 hours for a nicely set tart, so while I started on Sunday evening, the tart was only ready at midnight on Sunday! So D FINALLY sunk his teeth into it as an after-dinner dessert only last night heh. Hope the looonggg wait was worth it dear!