Chocolate Tarts With Pine Nuts

made some sweet pastry tart bases last friday to make fruit tarts for grandma's 70th birthday celebration on saturday. haha kooped some out to make chocolate tarts for him. i like the flower petals design created with the pine nuts. quite creative ya :)

i love nuts. they're so versatile!

we had his pd treat at chinatown temporary market that friday. haha but there were only six of us in total. just nice one table. one table but there was soooo much food - 2 fish head, i super big claypot rice, and two plates of vegetables!

i just completed a task assigned by bean! shall post that up soon :)

Here's the recipe...

Chocolate Tarts with Pine Nuts

Sweet Pastry Recipe
Adapted from Alex Goh's Irresistable Pastry.

Ingredients:
200g Butter
85g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
420g flour, sifted
1 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1.Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence lightly and add in the egg. Cream until smooth.
2. Add in flour and milk powder. Mix till well blended.
3. Press into tart mould.
4. Bake at 200 deg C for 10-12 minutes.
*Weight of pastry is 780g.

Choc Filling Recipe
Adapted from She Paints the Kitchen Red's Tarte Noire.

225g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 tbsp whipping cream
45g butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature
A handful of pine nuts

Method:
1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and have a whisk at hand. Bring the cream to a boil, then pour half of it over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Working with the whisk, gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the centre of the bowl and working your way out.

2. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motion. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients. The less you work it, the darker, smoother and shinier it will be.

3. Pour the ganache into the crust. Decorate with some pine nuts. Refrigerate the tart to let the ganache set.