Chocolate Tart with Hazelnut Shortbread Crust...

I knew I was going to have a bit of extra free time on my hands today, so I made sure I had everything on hand to keep myself busy making this Chocolate Tart with Hazelnut Shortbread Crust today.

It is not that it took a ton of time to complete, but there were quite a few steps and I knew I would need plenty of time to clean up afterwards (darn dishes!). The crust for this tart is decidedly unfussy - the only thing I recommend doing is toasting the hazelnuts and rubbing some of their skins off beforehand. While it probably wouldn't ruin the recipe if you didn't do this, sometimes those skins can be pretty bitter and I didn't want to take the chance. I'd also recommend seeking out a jar of hazelnut oil to reinforce that nutty layer, but don't let that stop you from making this - canola oil would be fine. After a few buzzes in a food processor to create the crumbly mixture, the crust is formed by pressing it into a tart pan. Since the filling is unbaked, you'll need to fully bake this crust and let it cool before filling it.

While it was cooling, I started working on the chocolate filling. You'll be making a smooth, but light and airy custard for this tart. The custard is pretty typical - it is thickened by egg yolks, but because you'll want the unbaked tart to slice into tidy pieces and hold its shape, bloomed gelatin is added. Using unsweetened chocolate makes for a rich, dark filling, but a bit of granulated sugar makes sure it is just sweet enough. Be sure to finely chop the very hard chocolate - this will help it melt quickly into the warm custard and ensure a smooth texture. To give this custard a lingering hint of coffee, I did add a shot of Kahlua, but this is purely optional - it is mainly used to reinforce the chocolate flavor.

Now, I'm sure the next part will be a little controversial because I used raw egg whites, but I'll state now that you certainly have the option to use either pasteurized eggs or reconstituted dried egg whites. If I was serving to guests or someone who had an immune deficiency, I'd probably go the other route, but it is just us eating this and I trust our fresh egg source.

At this point, the custard is pretty thick and dense - to breathe some life into it and make it billowy, we beat a couple egg whites, with a little cream of tartar to act as a stabilizer, until they had just begun to form soft, floppy peaks. With a bit of granulated sugar added, the egg whites continued to beat, increasing in volume, until we could flip the beater over and the egg whites stood at attention with a stiff peak. The custard is folded in and the milk chocolate colored filling is poured into its sturdy shell and stashed into the refrigerator until it cools down and firms up.

The swanky crust, with its rich nutty backbone, was a fantastic backdrop to encase the wallop of silky chocolate filling. While I could have downed this in the blink of an eye, I caught both of us taking our time to savor each forkful. Elegant enough to be served after a special dinner, but delicious enough to make for no other reason than to satisfy a chocolate craving, we thought this was well worth the effort (and clean up!) to make.

Recipes
Chocolate Tart with Hazelnut Shortbread Crust