Easy Peasy Chocolate Tartlets

These tartlets may look like you slaved away making them, but you don’t.

They’re so easy you’ll make them often. A big plus is that they can be streamlined even more.

I chose to make my own easy shortcrust pastry for these–and I truly suck at making pie pastry so you’ve got to trust me that this is easy! However, you can always buy those refrigerated pie crusts and cut circles big enough to fill the mini tart pans. I used 4-inch tart pans for these. That’s an ample serving because the filling is so rich. Half would probably suffice as a serving for most folks.

At this point I’m going to stress that my recipe for the tart pastry is European and ingredients are measured in grams. If you have a kitchen scale, there’s no problems. I have made the effort to actually measure what I use in the US system, but bear in mind that flour may NOT be accurate due to the way you fill the cup. You will get consistent and accurate results with all your baking if you weigh everything (the units don’t matter, but be consistent–don’t combine grams with ounces).

As if this can get any better, there’s only two ingredients in the filling!

Vary The Chocolate Flavor

I based this recipe off of something I saw on an old “Two Fat Ladies” program. It looked quick and easy and I used Jennifer’s advice to use a very dark chocolate–70% cacao. This intensely dark chocolate has bitter undertones and will make the resulting tart filling on the bitter, less-sweet side. I love super dark chocolate so I liked the taste. You may not, but there are other options.

These can always be made with a less bitter dark chocolate and even milk chocolate. What variety you use won’t have any impact on the filling setting up. Since the tarts are chilled in the fridge, any chocolate will firm up so there will be no problem.

Enjoy The Richness

These are in no way a “diet” dish. Please don’t be tempted to make substitutions for the cream. Heavy cream is necessary here for the texture. Where the type of chocolate you use should make no difference in the setting, using anything but heavy cream may affect it.

Since this is adapted from a British recipe and the cream called for is their “double cream,” which is 48% butterfat, there’s some fat saving with American heavy cream which is only 38-40% butterfat.

The Recipe

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Chocolate Tartlets

They’re very elegant, but these chocolate tartlets are incredibly easy as they are delicious!

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Chilling Time:45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: almonds, chocolate, dessert with nuts, tart recipe, tartlets

Servings: 6

Calories: 866kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds

Pastry: (see NOTES)

• 175 g flour 1 1/2 cup+2 tbs
• 2 tbs confectioners sugar
• 100 g cold butter cut in cubes 7 tbs
• 1 egg
• 1-2 tbs water--ONLY IF NECESSARY

Filling:

• 8 oz dark chocolate 70% cacao--see NOTES
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream--no substitutions

Instructions

• For pastry, add flour and confectioners sugar to a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles small peas. Add the egg and pulse until it forms a ball. If the pastry is too dry, add the additional water a drop at a time.
• Roll out and cut in 5-6-inch circles and press into 4-inch tart pans. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Prick the bottom of the dough and bake for 10 minutes or until crust is starting to get golden. Remove from oven and let the tart shells cool.
• Break up chocolate into small bits.
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water (microwaving is not recommended), stirring until no lumps remain. Slowly whisk the cream into the chocolate, blending well. Chill for 15-20 minutes or until the chocolate just begins to set.
• Vigorously whisk the chocolate/cream mixture to fluff it--you're not looking for stiff whipped cream here, just aeration.
• Top with toasted almonds.

Notes

You can substitute refrigerated pie crust.
70% cacao is very dark and bitter. You may substitute any good chocolate (dark or milk) for this

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 866kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 72g | Saturated Fat: 41g | Cholesterol: 200mg | Sodium: 175mg | Potassium: 449mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 1930IU | Vitamin C: 0.6mg | Calcium: 128mg | Iron: 6.3mg

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

 

What do you get when you combine a sweet pastry crust, apple pie filling, blobs of cheesecake, a crumb topping and caramel sauce?  Caramel apple cheesecake tart, of course!  And don’t let it’s look fool you–this is as easy as 1-2-3 and it’s not too bad calorie-wise either!

The pastry is as simple as can be–no rolling involved and entirely made in the food processor.  As to the apples, pretty simple opening a can, huh? And the cheesecake filling just has 4 ingredients, speedily mixed all together in a matter of minutes.  The most difficult things are the crumbs–kidding of course, but you do have to melt the butter and get out a small saucepan

Doesn’t break the calorie bank!

To further reduce fat and calories, you can substitute Neufchatel (now known as “low-fat cream cheese”) for the regular–but don’t use non-fat.  It just won’t set up.

Sugar-free apple filling can be used too as well as fresh apples.  Only thing I would not recommend is monkeying with ingredients in the crust nor using non-fat alternatives to the regular and reduced fat versions.  Often quite bad results occur–one day I’ll post about a “cheesecake” I made with non-fat cream cheese.  Picked it up by mistake as the packaging was almost the same as the regular.  It’s a horrid substance, but that’s another posting entirely LOL.

You can be completely decadent and serve this warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, or not be fancy and just serve plain and chilled.  Choice and extra calories are yours.

Just ENJOY.

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

What do you get when you combine a sweet pastry crust, apple pie filling, blobs of cheesecake, a crumb topping and caramel sauce?  Caramel apple cheesecake tart, of course!  

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: apples, caramel, cheesecake tarts

Servings: 8

Calories: 494kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

FRENCH PATISSERIE - real fancy, but a simple butter pastry:

• 1 1/4 cup unsifted flour
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 OZ stick cold unsalted butter, cut in small chunks
• 1 egg yolk reserve the white for the filling
• 1 tbs cold water

APPLE CHEESECAKE FILLING

• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 8- oz pkg cream cheese room temp
• 1 whole egg + reserved egg white
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp sour cream

CRUMB TOPPING

• 4 tbsp butter melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds reserve
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce for drizzle

Instructions

• For Pastry:
• Place flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the "S" blade (that's the standard blade). Pulse a few times to combine.
• Add butter chunks and pulse until mixture resembles small peas.
• Beat egg yolk and cold water together. With food processor running, add the egg/water mixture through the feed tube, only adding enough to make dough "ball"--depending on weather conditions, you may have to add a few more drops of water.
• Remove the dough from the food processor, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready for use. You can keep this up to 3 days.
• Press pastry into a 10-inch quiche/tart pan, bringing pastry up the sides. You may also use a springform pan of a similar size, but only bring the pastry about 1/2 to 1-inch up the sides.
• For the Crumbs:
• Mix the melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar well. Add flour, about 1/4 cup at a time until good, firm crumbs are made. You may not have to use all the flour, or you may have to use a tablespoon or so more. Your eye must be the judge of the proper consistency.
• For Filling:
• Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs and beat until very smooth. Stir in sour cream.
• Add apple pie filling to cream cheese mixture and just cut a knife through the mixture a few times--you don't want to mix it well, just "marble" it.
• Putting It All Together:
• Spread on top of crust in quiche pan. Top with crumbs. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place pan on a baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment.
• Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until center of tart is almost set.
• Remove from oven and cool on rack. You may serve this slightly warm or well chilled. However you serve it, drizzle each serving with caramel sauce.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 494kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 127mg | Sodium: 266mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 1047IU | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg

Caramel Apple Cheescake Tart

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