Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

It's day two in my Valentine's Day Countdown, and that means another chocolate recipe! This one is a tart filled with two types of luscious ganache, one of which contains hazelnut praline, and I decorated it with a hazelnut praline heart. Nutella addicts will love this!

The base of the recipe is my chocolate pie crust. It is quick, easy, and very light and flaky. The key to a good pie crust is keeping everything cold, especially the butter. When the butter melts, it creates steam, which results in a flaky crust. Another tip is to handle the dough minimally. Rolling and kneading develops the gluten in the flour, making it tough and unappealing.

There are two types of ganache in this tart. One is fudgier and made with milk chocolate while the other is satiny and bittersweet. You can change the types of chocolate, but I recommend keeping the proportions of liquid the way they are to have different textures.

Praline refers to caramel-coated nuts. How could this not be delicious? When you coat it in chocolate, it gets even better! I like to chop up some of the nuts before I drizzle them with caramel so that I can arrange them into a shape for the top (I made a heart for Valentine's Day!), but I leave the rest whole so that the praline is cut into the mixture when I make the filling. I do not add cream to the caramel because that turns it into chewy candy or a sauce, depending on how much you add. When it's just sugar and water, it becomes brittle and fragmented. This is a great way to add texture to the tart.

1 Cup Flour
1/4 Cup Cocoa
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Stick Butter, Chilled
1 Egg Yolk
2/3 Cup + 1/2 Cup + 2 T Cream
1/6 Cup Milk
7 oz Chocolate Chips
7 oz Milk Chocolate
6 oz Whole Hazelnuts, Roasted & Skinned

Pulse the flour, cocoa, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until small pieces remain. Combine the egg yolk with a tablespoon of cold water and add in.  Pulse until almost cohesive, adding more water as necessary. Chill.

Heat oven to 375F. Grease a 9-11" tart pan.

Roll the dough out to fit the prepared pan and prick with a fork. Grease a sheet of foil and press, greased-side down, onto the dough. Fill with pie weights or dried beans and bake for 25 minutes or until firm. Remove the foil and weights and bake for 5 minutes more or until cooked through.

Chop 2oz nuts. Spread all of the nuts on a foil-lined tray, separating the whole and the chopped and arranging the chopped nuts into a shape, if desired. Combine the remaining sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until amber. Pour over the nuts and cool until hard. Chop the whole nuts.

Heat 1/2 cup + 2T cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Whisk in the milk chocolate and fold in the previously whole nuts. Spread the mixture into the cooled crust and chill until set, 1-2 hours.

Combine the remaining cream and milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the chocolate chips and whisk until smooth.  Spread over the milk chocolate praline and chill until set, about an hour. Top with the remaining praline.

Makes 1 Tart
Recipe Adapted from The Gourmet Traveller

Truffles

Truffles are the stereotypical Valentine's Day treat, so this is the first in a line of chocolate recipes for Valentine's Day. I can spend a day in a chocolate store inhaling a dozen varieties, but I find it much more satisfying to make them myself. I can experiment with flavors, textures, and decorations, and the base recipe couldn't be easier.

I've made truffles many different ways; at the bakery I work at, they spread ganache into sheet pans, cut it into cubes, and drench them in chocolate using their industrial chocolate melter-temperer-enrober. Unfortunately, I do not have one of those godly machines, but I can make truffles almost as well with a cookie scoop and a bowl of chocolate. Simply shape chilled ganache into balls and dip in the chocolate using your hands, a fork, or special candy making tools.

As for flavoring the truffles, I love plain chocolate. You can use milk, dark, or white, and you can swirl in some caramel, nuts, dried fruits, peanut butter, various extracts (there's more than just vanilla!), or chunks of candy. However, I have found that jams prevent the ganache from setting well.

Temperature is key when making truffles. You need to melt the chocolate for the ganache and the shell, but the ganache must be frozen solid to keep its shape when dipped in the hot melted chocolate. It helps to place the chocolate-covered ganache balls on a chilled surface just after dipping to promote solidification.

5 oz Chocolate, Chopped
1 Cup Chocolate
1 1/2 T Butter
1/4 Cup Cream
1 T Corn Syrup
Add-Ins (i.e. nuts, candy, caramel, etc.)

Melt the butter and 5oz chocolate in a medium bowl.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream and corn syrup until simmering. Pour over the chocolate mixture and let stand for two minutes. Stir to combine, then mix in any add-ins. Chill for an hour or until fudgy.

Scoop the chilled ganache into small balls. freeze until hard.

Melt the cup of chocolate. Dip the frozen balls of ganache into the chocolate, decorate with sprinkles, nuts, etc., then chill until hard.

Recipe Adapted from Alton Brown

Chili

This chili is easy, delicious, and perfect for Superbowl parties! There are many types of chili, but this has just about everything in it: ground beef, sausage, tomatoes, beans, and a variety of vegetables. It can even be Kosher, depending on what sausage you use!

I wanted my chili to have balanced but complex flavors. To do so, I cooked the vegetables and meats separately before I combined everything. That simple technique allowed the meat to brown and caramelize and the flavors of the vegetables to mingle. Once I mixed everything together, the flavor of the vegetables infused the rest of the dish, and the meat didn't completely dissolve.

In chili, you have to use chiles. It's in the name. There are plenty of bell peppers in the recipe, but I also added an Anaheim. They are sweet with a slight kick, so you can add more spice via other chiles (i.e. jalapeños or habaneros) or dried, ground up chiles (I used a few spoonfuls of cayenne).

This specific batch of chili was meant for a Superbowl party at a Temple. Everything needed to be Kosher, so I used sweet Italian Beef Sausage. If that's not available or if you prefer something else, that is perfectly acceptable, but I do recommend sticking with some sort of Italian sausage. If you want even more heat, try a spicy variety!

As for my opinion on the chili vs chile debate, I refer to the dish as chili and the ingredients and country as chile.

1 1/2 lbs Ground Chuck
3/4 lb Italian Sausage
45 oz Canned Chili Beans, Mostly Drained
42 oz Canned Diced Tomatoes with Juice
4 oz Tomato Paste
1 Small Yellow Onion
1 Small Green Bell Pepper
1 Small Red Bell Pepper
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Anaheim Chile
1/2 Cup Beer
3 T Chili Powder
1 T + 1 tsp Chicken Bouillon
2 tsp Oregano
1/2 T Cumin
3/4 tsp Basil
3/4 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Pepper
2 T Cayenne
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Sugar
1 T Worcestershire
2 tsp Hot Sauce

Chop the onions and bell peppers. Mince the chile and garlic. Combine in a small skillet and cook until just softened.

Remove the casing from the sausage. Brown the sausage and beef in a large pot. Add the beans, tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir in the fresh vegetables, beer, worcestershire, and hot save. Combine the chicken bouillon, chili powder, oregano, cumin, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, and sugar. Stir into the chili.

Cover the pot and simmer on low for at least two hours.

Serves 16
Recipe Adapted from www.allrecipes.com