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:
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?
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.
My tarlets were 'lumpy' as well, but OH so yummy.
I didn't love these either. I liked them, but thought I would LOVE them. I liked your commentary - funny stuff.
i'm sorry you didn't like it...On to the next one!
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.
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