Ferrero Rocher Tartlets
Last year, two friends of mine and I held a little pop-up event together. During the event, I sold 5 different kinds of tartlets. One of them was this Ferrero Rocher tartlet. It was made from a gianduja chocolate mousse with a hazelnut praliné core, covered in a chocolate glaze studded with caramelized pieces of hazelnuts and set on top of a shortcrust pastry, concealing a crunchy chocolaty biscuit with hazelnuts*. Is it complicated? Yeah, a little bit.. Is it tasty? No doubt about it!
Chocolate Meringue Tartlets
Last year my American friends invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner. I baked these chocolate meringue tartlets for the event, in addition to a pistachio tart I brought as back-up. I’m pretty sure the other guests enjoyed these tartlets, you could see it on their faces. Literally, there were traces of meringue all over their beards and noses!
Hazelnut Tartlets (from homemade Nutella)
I really wanted the headline to be Hashahar Tartlet. Hashahar is a classic local cocoa spread. I tried to make a tartlet version of Hashahar, but unfortunately it came out terribly sweet. Then I thought to maybe change it to Nutella tartlet, but it felt a little too branded. At the end, I decided to go for a tartlet with hazelnut cream (homemade Nutella) mixed with mascarpone cheese. It came out wonderfully and very nutty.
Mozartkugel Cake
Not long ago, a couple of my dear sweet friends challenged me to recreate a candy almost as sweet as them, the Mozartkugel. The candy contains pistachio marzipan at its core, covered in a layer of nougat and then coated with a layer of dark chocolate. The MozartKugel was first created in the city of Salzburg in Austria. It brought a lot of good to the world, but also some major legal disputes over its name.
Chestnut Crembo
Crembo season is here. I’m not sure what’s more exciting, the smell of the first rain or the bite from the first crembo, a classic local treat. When I eat a crembo, I personally like to start from the top and when I reach the cookie, I eat it too. Sometimes I feel like peeling all the chocolate off and eat the meringue separately. Indeed, there are many ways to eat a crembo, but why crembo in a pita is one of them I will never understand.
Chocolate Covered Banana Marshmallow
Ever since I wrote about the chocolate banana brownies, I can’t stop thinking about those yellow banana marshmallows, coated with a thin layer of chocolate. How I used to love this crap as a child and would easily finish an entire box by myself. However, I always wished the bite would be more marshmallow-y than chocolaty.
Chocolate Cake with Oreo Buttercream
This week I fell into a trap. During my weekly family visit, my niece Amal came and sat on my lap, as she usually does when I’m there. Out of the blue, she asked me to make her a birthday cake. I immediately said yes. On one hand, it’s hard to say no to those beautiful big brown eyes. On the other hand, her birthday is in July, so there’s a lot of time till then. “You remember that your birthday is not so soon, right?” I asked. “Right, but I’m celebrating my birthday at school this week!” She said. With all the other kids whose birthdays fell during the summer break. And it turns out my sister was in charge of bringing a birthday cake for the whole class. There was no way out of it. I looked at Amal and promised her a beautiful birthday cake.
S’mores Tart v2.0
According to some of my American friends, s’mores are made of vanilla marshmallow, Hershey’s milk chocolate and Graham crackers. A classic camping snack. Roast the marshmallow on a campfire, put it on a piece of chocolate and sandwich it between two crackers. The heat of the marshmallow melts the chocolate and you get one big gooey party in your mouth. It’s a little difficult to obtain these ingredients where I live. Every time I try to replace them with similar alternatives, I get disapproving looks from my friends. Yet, I keep trying.
