cocoa & peanut sweetcrust pastry dough :
- mix together the cocoa powder, salt, icing sugar and ground peanut powder (grind the peanuts in a food processor until very fine) and then mix with the softened butter until well-incorporated and smooth (using a hand-held mixer or paddle-mixer or pastry blender by hand), then add the whole egg and water, mix again and finally the flour in several additions until you have a smooth dough that holds together (do not overmix)
- form the dough into a compact ball, slightly flour and place on a sheet of plastic film, flatten it out into a thick disk, wrap it up and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour
- after 1 hour, remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap, flour your work surface and begin to roll out the dough to form the pastry dough disks about 3-4 mm in thickness and use a large 10 or 12 cm round cutter to cut out into individual 10 cm disks (if making 10 tartlets in total) or 12 cm disks (if making 8 tartlets in total)
note 1 : you have 2 options for forming the dough disks, either roll it all out into 1 very large disk and then cut out the individual circles or begin by weighing the dough and dividing the total weight into 8 or 10 smaller individual balls and then roll them out and flatten them out individually with arolling pin (keep sprinkling your work surface with flour so that they do not stick to the work surface and slide easily).
- to form the tartlet/pie shells, use bottomless pie circles or little mini-tartlet baking molds to form your shortcrust pastry shells (if making 10 smaller tartlets, use circles that measure 8 cm in diameter by 2,5 cm in height or if making 8 larger tartlets, use 10 cm in diameter by 2 cm high pie circles)
- simply lay the larger cut-out dough disk on top of the pie circles/baking molds, gently form by pushing it in and forming the corners, bottom and sides and then use a sharp knife to slice off the excess on the top (keep the excess to make 1-2 extra shells), use a fork to prick several small holes on the bottom and place on your baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes …
note 2 : a trick to guarantee that the pastry crust shells do not warp/shrink or pull back when you will bake the pastry crust shells, line the inside of each shell with baking paper or aluminum foil and fill with dried pulses such as lentils (if you don’t have metallic or ceramic pellets), and then refrigerate as above.
- preheat the oven to 175°C for 15 minutes
- place the baking sheet with all the pastry crusts on the middle rack and bake for 17-18 minutes, if using the baking paper/aluminum foil with lentils/metallic/ceramic pellets system, remove the baked pastry shells after 20 minutes, remove the baking paper/aluminum foil with the lentils/pellets and place back in the hot oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes
salted caramel cream :
- remove the pastry shells from the oven and let cool completely
- to make the salty caramel cream, combine the softened butter (cut into cubes), the sugar, the sweetened condensed milk, the vanilla, salt and syrup/honey in a small casserole at medium heat
- while slowly heating, keep whisking and stirring for 10-15 minutes until smooth (do not increase the heat and do not leave unattended) and keep simmering until thickened and darker (or until reaching 107°C if you use a thermometer), then remove from heat, let cool slightly
- pour the warm caramel cream into the cooled pastry shells about 2/3 full and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes minimum (before the next phase)
dark chcolate ganache & decorative toppings :
- to make the dark chocolate ganache topping, heat the heavy cream with the syrup/honey until almost simmering and pour over the chopped chocolate in a bowl and stir until melted and completely smooth
- pour the warm chocolate topping on top of the caramel cream filled pastry shells (the remaining 1/3 space available) until level with the edge
- sprinkle the tartlets with coarsely chopped peanuts and cocoa nibs and then refrigerate for several hours before serving …
did you like ? share it !
Comments ? Questions ? Send me an email using the contact section below !
