TWD: Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Tartlets

Rachelle of Mommy? I’m Hungry! chose Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart on page 354 of Baking: From my home to yours. Check out her blog for the recipe. Or see my adapted version below.

I took quite a few liberties with this week's pick, using Dorie's original recipe as a starting point. I used ground hazelnuts in the sweet tart dough, swapped the chocolate for white chocolate and the raspberries for cranberries. These remind me of Christmas, both in appearance and in taste. Mmm... cranberry hazelnut white chocolate bark. I must make some of that soon. It's already been 3 months since Christmas, which means another 9 to go before I can step back into mass holiday-dessert-baking mode.

I was so happy to see this recipe come along so I could use my new tartlet pans from the dollar store. Surprisingly, there are tons of neat baking things at my dollar store. My 12 tins only cost $3 whereas in a baking supply store they'd probably be $3 each! I'm glad I made these small since they were quite sweet and rich. Definitely yummy but best in small servings. I can see why she used dark chocolate in hers, but no regrets here! This girl loves sugar.



I am posting the recipe since I changed it so much from the original. Just in case you happen to be a white chocolate lover like me. Even though she says to serve them warm, I prefer them cold straight from the fridge.

Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Tart
One 9" Tart | Adapted from Dorie

5 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 9-inch shell Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts (below), fully baked and cooled

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, add the chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, bring the cream, and butter just to a boil. Pour the cream-butter mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds. Working with a whisk or a rubber spatula, gently stir the liquid into the chocolate-start stirring in the center of the bowl and work your way out in ever-widening circles. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the eggs and yolk. Rap the bowl against the counter to break any bubbles that might have formed.

Scatter the berries over the bottom of the crust, then pour the chocolate ganache over them. Bake the tart for about 30 minutes-the filling should not jiggle if you tap the pan and a knife inserted into the center of the tart should come out a little streaky. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

Serving: There are some people who like this tart ever so slightly warm, but the flavor and texture don't really come into their own until the tart is cooled to room temperature. Serve it cold and it will lose its lovely creaminess. Whatever temperature ends up being your favorite, do serve the tart with whipped cream or creme fraiche.

Sweet Tart Dough with Hazelnuts
one 9-inch crust | Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground hazelnuts
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons)
very cold butter, cut small
1 egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter in and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in— some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Butter a 9" tart pan. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees F. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Then fully bake the crust: bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

Storing: Well wrapped, the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer—it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.