Friday, 29 June 2012

Chocolate tarts - work in progress

I told you yesterday about my chocolate tarts disaster.  So here they are as I found them straight out of the oven.  What a waste of all that lovely filling!  Pastry has never been my strength in the kitchen but I really shouldn't have attempted to bake with it on a day when anything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I wouldn't be sharing this at all except that I actually liked them the next day and think there may be some potential in the recipe.

I had some leftover pastry and leftover condensed milk and got a notion into my head to make chocolate tarts with it.  I was very tempted to adapt this Creamy Peanut Butter Pie, if only because it was such a sweet story of a wife making it to remember her husband Mikey who died suddenly.  But I kept being intrigued by Minnie's Chocolate Pie made by Katie at Apple and Spice.

However I take all the blame for the disaster.  Katie did warn readers not to substitute condensed milk for evaporated milk.  But condensed milk is just sweetened evaporated milk and I really wanted to make the pie to use some of my leftover condensed milk.  And to eat chocolate!  I then swithered over baking times and filled the pastry cases too much.  I knew they were too full but I wanted to use all the filling.  Which dripped all over my oven as well as the fairy cake tins.

My pastry was nicely cooked and even a little flaky.  The filling, however, lacked the sticky sludgy smoothness of Katie's photos.  Maybe I should have made the large pie rather than individuals.  My pies were almost cakey.  They were even a bit tasteless straight out of the oven.  The next day we loved them.  These are pies that are far better cool.  They are also very portable if you just so fancy one for morning tea at the office.  All in all, these were not a bad disaster (unless you had to do the washing up).

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Denis Cotter's salad, muffins and vegetarian musings
Two years ago: Going on a picnic with nutroast
Three years ago: Awesomely Delicious GF Pumpkin Brownies
Four years ago: Philip Island Pleasures
Five years ago: LOT #6 Leftover Beetroot Koftas in Carrot Sauce

Chocolate Tarts - work in progress
Badly adapted from Apple and Spice

1 heaped tbsp butter (I used margarine), melted
100ml condensed milk
3 tbsp cocoa
1 egg
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (I didn't use but might do if I did this again)
Pastry - I think I had about 1/3 of this yoghurt pastry

Roll out pastry and line some muffin tins (next time I would use deeper holes like muffins rather than in the tin I used).  Mix remaining ingredients together and spoon into pastry cups, leaving some room at the top for the filling to expand.  Bake at 200 C for about 30 minutes.  (I think the filling needs less time, I am not sure if the pastry would be ok with less time.  I toyed with blind baking but I wasn't sure.)

On the Stereo:
The Bestiality of - The bonzo dog doo-dah band
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18 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 June 2012 at 00:29

    a valiant effort!! and I'm with you, it doesn't have to be "pretty" to still taste outrageous! The things we do for chocolate, right? :) haha I still think they look delicious, and would love to enjoy one right about now!

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:19

      Thanks GF Happy Tummy - yep! tasty and pretty aren't always the same - would have happily shared them with you :-)

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  2. Caroline30 June 2012 at 08:00

    They look lovely despite overflowing. I too was very taken with Katie's pie - it looked delicious! I'm not surprised you wanted to recreate it!

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:20

      Thanks Caroline - Katie's pie looked amazing - I just am intimidated by a huge pie like that and wasn't sure I even had enough for it

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  3. Cakelaw30 June 2012 at 09:26

    LOL - bursting chocolate is never a bad thing, except for the washing up. These look tasty, nonetheless. Have a fabulous weekend Johanna - at least we have some sun!

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:21

      Thanks Cakelaw - it was so sunny yesterday and then the weather turned - must have known we had washing to hang out :-( - agree with you about bursting chocolate

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  4. Kari30 June 2012 at 13:50

    Isn't it funny the way fillings can vary so much in how they turn out? Looking at the ingredient list I can see how the filling could go cake-y, but on looking at Katie's ingredients they weren't so very different. As it is, though, your tarts still appeal to me, and one advantage of explosions in baked goods is that there's justification for keeping them all to yourself :)

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:22

      Thanks Kari - I thought about making these tarts for quite some days before I made them and I think I swithered as I worried they wouldn't bee as gooey as katie's - am very glad I didn't plan to share these with anyone - definitely not for company :-)

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  5. Hannah30 June 2012 at 14:40

    I avoid pastry at all costs, so kudos to you for even trying! And hurrah that they tasted wonderful the long day. They definitely need a spoonful of peanut butter on top though. ;)

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:23

      Thanks Hannah - it seems my winter of pastry - though it just seems lots of experiments and not quite feeling at home with the stuff yet! am sure peanut butter would go well - my other plan was to mix condensed milk, cashew butter and chocolate and adding it after the pastry cooked -would have been softer and probably messier

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  6. The Caked Crusader30 June 2012 at 18:25

    Taste is everything...and I would NEVER complain about my tart having too much chocolate filling!

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:24

      Thanks Caked Crusader - in that case I would love to serve you these tarts :-)

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  7. ~~louise~~30 June 2012 at 23:10

    Pastry has never been my strength one of my fortes either Johanna and if I ever tempted to make such a tart it would surely be uneatable. But, as the Cake Crusader said, "Taste is everything" and that's really all that matters. I'm sure you will continue to perfect these Chocolate Tarts to your liking but I'll just take one as it is, lol...

    Thanks for sharing...

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:25

      Thanks Louise - taste is everything and experimenting in the kitchen can only make me wiser :-) Will continue to find that perfect chocolate tart

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  8. Fuss Free Helen1 July 2012 at 07:37

    They look pretty good to me. I hope that the oven clean up was not too bad.

    I had almost forgotton about the bonzo dog doo-dah band. Love them. Jollity Farm and the like!

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:25

      Thanks Helen - let's not mention my shoddy oven cleaning but the bonzo dog doo-dah band is very amusing - never heard of them til E got a cd of theirs in the last few years

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  9. Hotly Spiced1 July 2012 at 11:16

    Oh dear. Sometimes substituting ingredients can work, other times it's a disaster. I hate that. And as well you have all the mixture burnt onto your oven. Not a good day in the kitchen! Well, we've all had days like that! xx

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    1. Johanna GGG1 July 2012 at 14:27

      Thanks Charlie - I am always gung-ho with substituting ingredients because I am loathe to buy a new ingredient if I have something close enough for jazz! We do all have days like that which are forgotten after a bit of scrubbing :-)

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