Yesterday was Easter so we had a big celebration at my sister-in-law’s house. It was a wonderful day! We had beautiful weather here in Pennsylvania and a delicious meal. They grilled some fresh salmon and we had a really nice variety of side dishes to go along with it. For someone trying to eat unprocessed food there were lots of options and it was nice to see a meal without all the additives at someone else’s home!
I made some mini-desserts to take… including these delicious Whole Wheat Chocolate Tarts. I had a very hard time finding a recipe with whole ingredients so I adapted my own using this recipe from Martha Stewart. They turned out fantastic! As with all of my dessert recipes, I like to mention sugar is still sugar! Although this is a less refined version that doesn’t mean I’m going to go crazy with it because I think that it is “better”. I switched out the all purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour and the regular sugar for a pure cane sugar. I also used a higher quality cocoa powder as opposed to the standard Hershey’s brand. Sometimes you get what you pay for and in this instance I would rather support a company that doesn’t use a ton of additives and unknown ingredients in their products. Although Hershey’s cocoa powder has only one ingredient, the rest of their products are all filled with questionable ingredients. Here are links to these products.
I also used this wonderful mini-tartlet pan to get a really nice looking shell. It is super easy to use and your end product looks like something straight from a professional bakery. If you have ever wondered how specialty bakeries make their mini products so eye appealing, it is the use of pans like this one.
I filled these chocolate tarts with Mascarpone cheese. I did two varieties of Mascarpone in the shells, one was plain and the other had a hint of coffee in it. The Mascarpone really helps make these delicious because it is creamy and smooth without the use of any additives or extra flavorings. It is simple and allows for the chocolate and fruit to shine and really make this dessert. Sometimes less is more when it comes to sugar in desserts and this is one of those instances.
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Whole Wheat Chocolate Tart Dough
By Published: April 21, 2014
- Yield: 24 mini tart shells (24 Servings)
- Prep: 45 mins
- Cook: 10 mins
- Ready In: 1 hr 35 mins
Simple Chocolate Tart Dough that comes together in just a few minutes!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter chilled and cut into large chunks
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- additional flour for dusting I use whole wheat white because the pastry flour is a bit expensive just for dusting
- filling of your choice
Instructions
- Put flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt in KitchenAid mixer with paddle attachment. Alternatively, if you do not have a mixer, you can use your hands in a bowl. Make sure your butter is cold.
- Mix on low until you see butter chunks the size of a pea form. Your mixture will be course.
- Add egg yolks, heavy cream, and vanilla. Mix on low until everything comes together.
- Turn dough out onto plastic wrap. Wrap and place in refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
- Lightly dust the surface you are going to be rolling your dough out onto. Also dust your dough, as it will be sticky. Roll dough out thinly. Use the top of a cup to cut dough circles.
- Place dough circle over the tartlet mold and press in gently.
- Trim the top so no dough is just up to the top of the mold.
- Once you have all of your molds filled, chill dough in refrigerator for about 10-20 minutes or until hard. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
- When shells are cooled fill with desired fillings. As I said I used Mascarpone cheese and fresh fruit.
