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Salted Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

19 Dec

Sometimes the best gifts arrive before Christmas.  My husband’s auntie and uncle, they of the cider press, are in the habit of buying large quantities of hazelnuts.  They are also in the habit of sharing their haul of hazelnuts, which is one of the many qualities they possess that I greatly enjoy.

You may notice that when I get my hands on a certain ingredient, recipes that involving that ingredient tend to take over the site for a while.  When the strawberries start producing, the tomatoes ripen, and markets everywhere start offering fresh pears, I tend to focus pretty hard.  Garden fresh vegetables and fruit are only available for a short period of time, so why not settle down with them for a bit?  Predictably, things were no different with me this time around, so as soon as I opened the big tin of nuts and saw what was inside, my mind immediately began to buzz with possibilities.

I’ve never been great at meal planning, and I think the creation of this tart points towards one of the main reasons I struggle so much to look an entire week or more ahead when it comes to thinking about what I am going to cook.  I like inspiration, and when every time I have sat down to plan a week’s worth of meals, my plans undoubtedly become derailed by the spotting of something at the market that just called to be brought home.  Maybe delicata squash wasn’t on my grocery list, but when I see the first fall squash of the season, chances are I am going to go all swoony and buy it.  While I wasn’t anticipating having a large amount of hazelnuts sitting around my house, I sure was glad to see them when they arrived.

And while I subsequently may not have known at the time that I really, really wanted to make a baked chocolate tart topped with flakes of sea salt and savory hazelnuts, I sure was pleased to see it come together a few days later while I literally made things up as I went along, led by the promise of something incredible.

Some of you may recall that I have very recently made another chocolate hazelnut tart.  That tart, with its creamy, pudding-like filling made from hazelnut milk, is an entirely different animal.  The heft in that tart comes from its graham flour crust, while the filling is soft, light, and faintly scented of hazelnuts.  This tart almost functions as the reverse of that tart, with the buttery shortbread crust serving as the crisp counterpart to the dark, deep, bittersweet chocolate filling topped with flavorful toasted hazelnuts and the unexpected bite of sea salt.  While I might be tempted to call the previous chocolate hazelnut tart subtle, I would never even think of accusing this tart of being as such.  It’s CHOCOLATE and HAZELNUTS rendered BOLD, in ALL CAPS, and it demands your attention, straightaway.

Salted Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

I like a lightly salted bite, so I sprinkle only a modest amount of sea salt on this tart.  If you are in search of a more pronounced salty flavor, by all means, add a bit more.  I have included options for  both less salty and more salty preferences in the recipe.

1 partially baked sweet tart shell (this is a great sweet tart crust that I love to pair with this type of tart)

1 cup whole hazelnuts

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch chunks

¼ cup Dutch processed cocoa powder

pinch salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons heavy cream

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1/8-¼ teaspoon flakey sea salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place hazelnuts on a baking sheet, and toast for 10 to 15 minutes, until you see the skins begin to curl up slightly and come loose.  Place the nuts in a clean dish towel, fold the towel over the nuts, and vigorously rub the towel around, sloughing loose the hazelnut skins.  Continue to rub the hazelnuts in the towel until most of the skins have come free.  It is perfectly fine if some skins remain intact.  Very coarsely chop hazelnuts, mostly to cut them in half, then set aside.

In a double boiler, or in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, combine the chopped chocolate, butter, cocoa powder, and pinch of salt.  Slowly stir until the ingredients have melted together, then stir until well mixed.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and heavy cream.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until light and ribbony, about 3-5 minutes.  Very slowly pour the slightly cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, beating as you pour.  Beat for 1 minute to combine completely.

Pour chocolate mixture into the parbaked tart shell.  Place tart on a baking sheet, and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, until the chocolate filling has just begun to set.  Remove the tart from the oven while still on the baking sheet, scatter the hazelnuts over the top of the partially baked tart, press them very gently into the filling, then return to the oven to bake an additional 15 minutes, until the edges of the tart appear a bit dry and have started to crack.

Remove tart from oven.  Sprinkle your desired amount of sea salt evenly over the top of the tart.  Cool on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes.  The tart will appear quite puffed up when you first remove it from the oven, but it will sink as it cools, allowing the hazelnuts to nestle in quite nicely.

If desired, top with unsweetened whipped cream flavored with just a hint of vanilla.

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Peppermint Mocha Crinkle Cookies

15 Dec

A couple of weeks ago, my brother very helpfully (and forcefully) pointed out that there seems to be a tragic lack of cookie recipes on this site.  Among all the cakes and tarts and pies aplenty, thus far I’ve logged a sad total of a mere two cookie recipes.  How is this even possible?  Cookies are divine.  I love cookies.  Everyone loves cookies.  But is it somehow even imaginable that, of all the baked goods available to my baking whims, maybe cookies reside at the bottom of my list of preferred baked goods?

No.  Not true.  As proven by my excitement over the discovery of the magic that is the cookie exchange, I think it’s fair to say that cookies and I, we get along just fine.  Thus, choosing to classify the sore absence of cookies on Savory Salty Sweet as a mere oversight, and certainly not a deliberate snub, it’s high time I remedied the problem.

I love a good chocolate crinkle cookie, which is oftentimes a shame, as it seems as though I’ve eaten a lot of really bad chocolate crinkle cookies.  Cookies with tooth-aching sweetness, no chocolate punch, or a decidedly sandy texture are not fine representations of a chocolate crinkle cookie (or any other cookie, for that matter), but that’s frequently what one gets when trying to indulge in such.  Determined to alter the trajectory of what seems to be the downward spiral of a cookie that used to be—and should be—held in such fine regard, I set to work trying to make a chocolate crinkle cookie that would have all the elements I loved most about the cookie: deep chocolate flavor, perfectly moist texture, and a satisfying sweetness that never fell to the side of cloying.

The good news is, I made some very fine cookies.  The bad news is, I don’t know if anyone who was looking for a traditional chocolate crinkle cookie would eat one of these and declare it the final destination of their search.  Believe me, these cookies are fantastic—rich, moist, and completely satisfying—but they are a long way away from what I started out intending to make.  First of all, when I was deciding how much to punch up the chocolate flavor in this cookie, I very suddenly figured that if I was going to add a bit of espresso powder to the dough to make the chocolate shine, maybe I’d actually just add a whole bunch of espresso powder.  Why?  Why not?  And while I was at it, why not add a bit of peppermint extract to the mix, for no other reason than, hey, here’s a bottle of peppermint extract sitting right next to the bottle of espresso powder, why not throw in some of that as well?

Though I generally would not condone this haphazard method of recipe creation (imagine what might have happened if there was a bottle of zucchini relish or hot mustard next to the espresso powder), in some cases, when you decide to improvise, things turn out in your favor.  And, incidentally, the favor of those around you who happen to enjoy eating cookies as much as you like making them.  Deemed supremely acceptable by the original requester of cookies, these cookies made for some mighty delicious treats, suitable for anyone and everyone you know who adores cookies with a perfectly soft and chewy bite, intense chocolate flavor, and a hint of peppermint.  You know: all humans.

Peppermint Mocha Crinkle Cookies

The peppermint flavor in these cookies is meant to serve as one of many elements going on in terms of flavor.  Because of that, the amount of peppermint extract I list here will produce a cookie with a nice mint tone, but not a brisk slap of mint.  If you want to make a cookie that is more mint-forward, increase the amount of mint extract to a full teaspoon.

Note: This cookie dough will need to be chilled for at least four hours, so plan ahead accordingly.  Be even more ahead of the game by chilling this dough overnight and then baking the cookies at your leisure when you wish to eat them.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

¾ cup white sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon espresso powder

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon peppermint extract

¼ cup powdered sugar (for rolling the cookies)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.  In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the cocoa powder, sugars, oil, and espresso powder until combined.  One at a time, beat in the eggs, thoroughly mixing in between each one.  Stir in the vanilla and peppermint extracts.  Add the flour mixture to the cocoa mixture, stirring to thoroughly combine.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

When you are ready to bake your cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pour the powdered sugar onto a small plate or into a shallow bowl.  Using a tablespoon measure or a cookie scoop, form 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball by rolling it in between your palms.  Dip half of the dough ball into the powdered sugar, then place the ball onto the prepared cookie sheet, powdered sugar-side up.  Place the dough balls at least 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet.  When you have filled a cookie sheet, very lightly and gently press down on each ball, ever-so-slightly flattening the ball just a tad.

Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for 8-9 minutes, until the cookies begin to crack on top, and the visible insides of the cookies still appear to be quite wet.  Do not overbake the cookies, as they will become very dry.  Remove cookies from baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.

Makes roughly 6 dozen cookies.

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Ginger Almond Toffee

12 Dec

It’s not tough to find a specialty chocolate shop in Portland, or in most any other city, I suppose, but it is certainly not easy to find a shop that is not only staffed by some of the friendliest, most knowledgeable chocolate fans around (sidenote: I once knew someone who worked in a chocolate shop and was allergic to chocolate, which is just absurd when you think about it, because wouldn’t you think, and hope, that a chocolate shop, selling chocolate and all, would want to hire people who could, you know, readily sample and talk honestly about  their product without breaking out in a rash?) but also offers a truly creative selection of chocolate treats.  Alma Chocolate, in Northeast Portland, is that chocolate shop.  Sure, everyone makes salted caramels nowadays, but how about habanero caramels?  Or a Thai peanut butter cup, a dream of a chocolate confection that layers your mouth with hits of lime, chili, and ginger?  How about a chevre and black pepper truffle?  Do you see what I mean?  It’s chocolate taken just a step further, from pleasingly creative to utterly inspired.

Though not their most unusual of offerings, Alma’s ginger almond toffee bark is a great example of the way their take on confections can be given a bit of a lift.  The toffee is perfectly melt-in-your-mouth, enveloping large chunks of spicy candied ginger and toasted almonds.  Most people take the timid route with this type of toffee, unfortunately, peppering it only moderately with tiny little bits of ginger, and pulverizing the almonds into an almost powdery layer that only hints at its presence.  But Alma knows better, and they know that if someone wants to eat ginger almond toffee, they want to eat ginger, and almonds, and toffee, each component standing front and center.

It might seem odd to wax rhapsodic about a chocolatier and then immediately turn around and attempt to make their product at home instead of heading out and buying something to support that chocolatier, but, when I have an affection for something, this is how I show it.  If I am truly enamored of something, I like to make it a part of my life, and a toffee of this caliber is most certainly worthy of being part of my life, and the lives of other people I know who happen to be partial to smooth chocolate, rich toffee, snappy ginger, and crisp almonds.

Ginger Almond Toffee

Inspired by Alma Chocolate

1 cup toasted whole almonds

heaping ¼ cup crystallized candied ginger

1 ¼ cups white sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons water

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon molasses

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon baking soda

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Separate the almonds into ¾ cup and ¼ cup piles.  Chop the ¾ cup pile very roughly, basically just chopping each almond roughly in half (you want these almonds to maintain a good bite).  Chop the remaining ¼ cup pile into a medium-fine dice and set aside.

Coarsely chop the heaping ¼ cup of crystallized ginger.  Line the bottom of an 8”x13” baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper, and evenly scatter the ¾ cup of almond chunks and the chopped crystallized ginger over the parchment.

In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, water, butter, molasses, and sea salt.  Over medium heat, cook the mixture, stirring occasionally with a heatproof spoon or spatula, until it turns a rich, dark golden brown and just reaches a heat of 300 degrees.  (This process can take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the heat of your stove’s burner and the heating capabilities of the saucepan you are using.)  Immediately remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the vanilla and baking soda.  The mixture will bubble up when the baking soda is added, so be sure to stir carefully but thoroughly.

Quickly pour the mixture evenly over the almonds and ginger.  When the toffee is still hot but just starting to set (about 2 minutes later), sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the surface of the toffee.  Allow the chocolate to melt from the heat of the toffee, then spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee.  Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup chopped almonds over the chocolate.

Allow the toffee to cool completely before breaking into pieces.  If you want to speed up the cooling process, you can place the toffee in either the refrigerator (more patience) or the freezer (less patience).

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