Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets



The Second Installment from Tuesdays With Dorie

This week, we made Chocolate Truffle Tartlets from Baking with Julia.

Here is a link to the recipe!

I can only describe it as a lot of work without the reward. There are many reasons why I did not love these tartlets. Here we go:

1) The Chocolate Dough made me feel incompetent (not that I actually have my act together). I made it in my food processor after watching the Baking with Julia episode where David Ogonowski admitted that it might be dry and flaky. I added extra water. I tried not to over work it. I wrapped it in cling wrap and put it in the freezer. Then, in a rookie move, I took it out of the freezer much later and tried to shape it. Yes, it was frozen into a rock. So, I put it in the refrigerator (like I should have to begin with) and tried again hours later. After proper refrigeration, it easily went into my mini-tart pans.

2) I poked the crusts with a fork and baked them. However, I think I made my crusts too thick and they took up too much of the pans so there wasn't enough room for truffle.

3) I am not a bittersweet chocolate fan. That is why I had unsweetened baking chocolate that expired in Feb 2010 in my kitchen. Was it no good anymore or is it that I just don't like the bitter experience? And, when your chocolate is a few years past its prime, it is hard to finely chop it.

4) Speaking of chopping chocolate, I didn't chop the milk and white chocolate small enough so when the tart finished baking, there were large pieces that didn't melt into the truffle.

5) What is with a recipe that makes you bake two other things first? I guess I shouldn't count having to make the Chocolate Dough as another thing, but it was on a separate page in the book and I'm already complaining...But to ask for 4 biscotti, like I have them lying around the house next to old gym shoes and expired unsweetend chocolate? I bought some Trader Joe's Almond Biscotti which I think defeats the purpose of baking from scratch.

In the end...we didn't love this. I thought it was because we rushed to eat it out of the oven. However, even the next day it wasn't great. We tried heating it so it would have a melted center and it was ok. Not worth all the effort.

They can't all be winners.

6 comments:

gearedtocook said...

Sorry you didn't enjoy the tarts! Dough can be pretty challenging to me too. What are you looking forward to making from the rest of the book?

Jules Someone said...

Rookie mistakes. ;-) Sorry you didn't enjoy this one. I skipped the milk/white chocolate. Much better. Did you use unsweetened chocolate instead of bittersweet? That would definitely change the finished product.

gorejus gratitude said...

My tarlets were 'lumpy' as well, but OH so yummy.

pinkapron said...

I didn't love these either. I liked them, but thought I would LOVE them. I liked your commentary - funny stuff.

Wendy (pinkstripes) said...

i'm sorry you didn't like it...On to the next one!

Cher Rockwell said...

Sorry this wasn't your favorite.
I must admit, when I see that a recipe calls you to make a couple of other recipes first, I usually run the other way. I would much rather work through one LONG recipe.