Chocolate tartlets and crunchy praline

This recipe is not for diet, you can eat it on diet-resting days.

6 chocolate tartlets and crispy praline

For equipment, you will need to circles tartlet 8 cm, a whisk and a spatula.

Ingredients:

Sweet pastry with chocolate :

• 90 g icing sugar
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 120 g of butter
• 2 g of salt
• 30 g ground almonds
• 1 egg
• 210 g of flour type 55

Creamy chocolate:

• 85 g of cream
• 85 g of milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 8 g of sugar
• 70 g dark chocolate 70% 

Crunchy praliné:

• 40 g of milk chocolate 
• 55 g of praline
• 45 cookies

Finishing (optional):

• 200 g of dark chocolate
• 6 chocolate truffles
• a gold leaf

Preparation:

I advise you to start by preparing the sweet dough with chocolate, and while it is resting to make the creamy chocolate. You can also make your tarts the day before (filled with the crunchy praline), but add the creamy chocolate on the day so that it does not moisten too much.

Sweet pastry with chocolate:

You can make this recipe in your robot with the leaf (the flat whip) or by hand in a bowl.

Sift the icing sugar with the cocoa powder.

Pour the ointment butter, icing sugar, cocoa, salt and almond powder into your bowl. Mix at low speed so as not to froth the butter.

Add the egg and continue mixing.

Add the flour and knead at medium speed. It is best to knead the dough as little as possible and stop as soon as the flour is incorporated into the mix, even if it does not form a nice ball of dough.

Then put your dough in a film paper. Crush the ball with the palm of your hand to get a flatter disc.

Let the dough rest for one hour in the refrigerator.

Flour your worktop and dough, then spread it out.

Preheat your oven to 170 ° C turn heat, prick your pie with a fork to prevent air bubbles form cooking and bake your dough for 15 min.

Creamy chocolate:

Make a custard: to do this, bring the cream and the milk to a boil.

Meanwhile mix egg yolks and sugar with whip.

Pour the milk and cream mixture over the yolks and whip. Put the whole thing back to 82 ° C or the tablecloth.

Pour your custard over the chocolate and let stand 5 to 10 minutes for the chocolate to melt quietly.

Then mix with a spatula until you get a smooth, shiny cream.

Put a film of food on contact and reserve in the refrigerator.

Crunchy praliné:

Melt the milk chocolate in a bain-marie.

Off the heat, add the praline and biscuits that you crush in your hands to make crumbs.

Mix and garnish the bottom of your tarts. Do not wait too long, it is easier to work crisp praline when it is lukewarm.

Toss praline well, using a spoon, to obtain a compact and smooth layer.

Finishing:

To finish fill the tarts to the brim with the creamy chocolate and then reserve them in the fridge.

If you want to make the brushed chocolate discs, you must temper the 200 g chocolate. This process allows a good crystallization of the cocoa butter present in the chocolate, making it smooth, shiny and solid.

You have to make a temperature curve with chocolate to do what is called "temper". Melt in a water bath at about 50 ° C, then place in a cold water bath with ice cubes to cool to 28 ° C.

Finally you can heat it a little bit to be able to work it more easily, but without exceeding 31 ° C. It is obviously necessary to mix continuously during all these stages.

Spread it on a silicone mat, but not too thinly. When the chocolate begins to harden, cut out the size of your tartlets with a cookie cutter.

Once the chocolate is cold and strong, you can brush it. Use for this a small wire brush (found in a DIY store) and brush gently, always in the same direction.

Plan more discs than necessary because it's very common to break them when you brush them. And do not hesitate to make them in advance.

Place the disc on the tart, then stick the truffles with a little melted chocolate (or creamy chocolate if you have any) and finish with a hint of gold leaf.

Of course the finish may scare some, but it is not mandatory. You can serve the tartlets without putting the disc and the truffle on top.

Remember to take out the chocolate tartlets 30 minutes before serving them so that it is not too cold and that the chocolate perfectly releases its aromas!

Tips and advice to remember:

• You can make, with the same quantities, a pie of 20 cm in diameter. Do not hesitate to increase the amount of creamy and crunchy praline if you want to make a larger pie (but no need to make more sweet dough).
• The sweet chocolate dough recipe is for two pies, but I never divide it because of the egg. That said you can do only half (but you will have to weigh half an egg). Otherwise it freezes very well!
• For the sweet dough with chocolate, once the flour is incorporated, it is necessary to work the dough as little as possible to avoid that it becomes friable. Stop your drummer as soon as the mixture is homogeneous.
• If the paste breaks it does not matter, patch it as you can, it should not be seen after cooking. But remember to respect the rest times so that it does not retract when cooked.

Useful informations:

Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for nearly all of its history. For example, one vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico, dates chocolate's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BCE. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BCE. The residues and the kind of vessel in which they were found indicate the initial use of cacao was not simply as a beverage, but the white pulp around the cacao beans was likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink.

An early Classic-period (460–480 AD) Mayan tomb from the site in Rio Azul had vessels with the Maya glyph for cacao on them with residue of a chocolate drink, suggests the Maya were drinking chocolate around 400 AD. Documents in Maya hieroglyphs stated chocolate was used for ceremonial purposes, in addition to everyday life. The Maya grew cacao trees in their backyards, and used the cacao seeds the trees produced to make a frothy, bitter drink.

By the 15th century, the Aztecs gained control of a large part of Mesoamerica and adopted cacao into their culture. They associated chocolate with Quetzalcoatl, who, according to one legend, was cast away by the other gods for sharing chocolate with humans, and identified its extrication from the pod with the removal of the human heart in sacrifice. In contrast to the Maya, who liked their chocolate warm, the Aztecs drank it cold, seasoning it with a broad variety of additives, including the petals of the Cymbopetalum penduliflorum tree, chile pepper, allspice, vanilla, and honey.

The Aztecs were not able to grow cacao themselves, as their home in the Mexican highlands was unsuitable for it, so chocolate was a luxury imported into the empire. Those who lived in areas ruled by the Aztecs were required to offer cacao seeds in payment of the tax they deemed "tribute". Cocoa beans were often used as currency. For example, the Aztecs used a system in which one turkey cost 100 cacao beans and one fresh avocado was worth three beans.

Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. Christopher Columbus and his son Ferdinand encountered the cacao bean on Columbus's fourth mission to the Americas on 15 August 1502, when he and his crew seized a large native canoe that proved to contain cacao beans among other goods for trade. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter it, as the frothy drink was part of the after-dinner routine of Montezuma. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote of its growing influence on the Spaniards: Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this Chocolate. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.