This just got real. I initially read the recipe for this tart weeks ago and I almost closed the book, put it back on the shelf and called it quits. Why? Because I couldn't pronounce half the ingredients let alone know what the frick they were.... feuilletine, trimoline, glucose.... seriously? So, I turned to my trusty friend the Internet. She told me what it all was, but I had to find it all for myself. You know how I get grumpy when I have to go to two stores? Try five stores and still having to order something from the Internet. No wonder it took me so long to make this tart.
Let's review....
Hazelnut-almond praline paste:
What is it?
One of the least scary on the list, it's a paste made with almond and hazelnut butter and sugar, and it's used to make candy and other desserts. It's kind of like Nutella without the chocolate.
Where the heck do you get it?
I found this at a local Gourmet store in Old Town Alexandria called La Cuisine. I loved this place! The lady there was so nice and helped me find everything I needed that they actually had. I was able to get a few things for this recipe and a bunch for other recipes as well. Since this was the first stop on my trek, she even gave me advice on where to find other ingredients, what good substitutes were or what might be completely unnecessary.
Cocoa butter:
What is it?
No, not the stuff you rub on stretch marks; it's a pale-yellow, edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean that pastry chefs usually use to thin out chocolate. (btw, don't eat this stuff by itself, it's like eating Crisco. Gross.)
Where the heck do you get it?
The Internet. Seriously, I looked everywhere for this stuff and finally broke down and ordered it.
Feuilletine:
What is it?
Let's just call this wafer crunch. It's basically a super thin cookie that is crumbled up and added to ganache, candies and pastries to add crunch.
Where the heck do you get it?
You don't, you make it! The lovely woman at La Cuisine advised me of this, I looked up a recipe and it was super easy. We'll discuss later.
Cocoa Nibs:
What is it?
The particles of the cocoa beans left after the beans are roasted and shelled for making chocolate.
Where the heck do you get it?
You can find these covered in chocolate all over the place, but I finally found them plain at Whole Foods.
Trimoline:
What is it?
Also referred to as inverted sugar, it is a combination of glucose and fructose which makes baked goods retain moisture and less prone to crystallization. Blah, blah, blah, Science.
Where the heck do you get it?
You don't. After some research and talking to the nice woman at La Cuisine, I decided to skip it and substitute corn syrup. This stuff is much more important in professional bakeries where you are trying to keep things fresher longer.
Glucose:
What is it?
Another kind of sugar that delays sugar re-crystallization and keeps pastries from drying out for a better product preservation.
Where the heck do you get it?
They had this at La Cuisine so I went ahead and got it since I a few other recipes in the book ask for it. I figured having at least one of the non-crystallizing sugar things in my ganache would be good enough.
OK, enough learnin', let's get cookin'!
This recipe has a ton of ingredients and really 4 components; the crust, the praline layer, the ganache layer and the dentelle garnish. I'm going to talk about them in the order of assembly, not necessarily the order I made them since some had to be made days earlier due to freezing times, etc.
First, the crust. This is the Pâte Sucreé we talked about yesterday; pretty much a sweet cookie dough type crust. He's been sitting in the freezer for over a week so I set him out on the counter for a bit, rolled him out and put him in the tart pan. I used my handy pie weights on top to keep the crust from rising in the oven and baked it. The tart doesn't get baked again once you put the fillings in it, so it needs to be cooked through and golden brown. Success! ...although the instructions had it baking for about an hour while mine only took 40ish minutes.
The next layer is the praline. One component of the praline is the feuilletine which is one of the ridiculous ingredients we talked about above. I couldn't find it in the five stores I went to so I made it with the help of this recipe by the aptly named blog "Brave Tart". You mix butter, brown sugar, baking soda, molasses, vanilla, flour and milk together and spread it as thin as possible on a sheet pan. Bake. Crumble. You then have some tasty, almost gingerbready, crispy crumbles to add texture to your praline. I cut the recipe in half and still had way too much so I've been doing a lot of drive by eating and putting in on ice cream in an ode to waffle cone.
The praline itself consists of hazelnut-almond paste, chocolate, cocoa butter and the feuilletine, which all gets mixed together, rolled out super thin and frozen. Once it's thoroughly frozen, you cut it the size of the tart and it becomes the base layer. Preferably, it doesn't crack in half while you're moving it, but we can't all win all the time. Not surprisingly, the praline tastes like Nutella... chocolate, hazelnuts... yep, that'll do it.
The third component is chocolate ganache. Mmmmmmm, ganache. I have to give all the credit for how yummy this ganache is to the chocolate I used. I often use regular old store brand chocolate but for this puppy I used Valhrona chocolate that I bought at my new favorite store, La Cuisine. Totally worth it! The melted chocolate is mixed with hot cream that's got the glucose and trimoline (corn syrup) in it.
So, we've got a crust, with a layer of praline topped with ganache. We can't just leave it like that can we? No, we need lace.
The Dentelle ("lace" in French) is the decoration or garnish of the tart. It is made of butter, sugar, corn syrup and milk heated and mixed with hazelnuts, cocoa nibs and cocoa powder.
It gets rolled out and baked until it's nice crispy. Then cut into a circle to garnish the top of the tart. It's got a pretty bitter chocolatey taste (in a good way) due to the cocoa nibs. See how it kind of looks like lace?
OK, so this tart is really pretty. It was also very, very tasty. The crust was nice and firm, but a little bit flaky and the ganache was no joke. The ganache set up so nicely and held up perfectly when the tart was cut. CA said it was a "restaurant quality" dessert. Fine. But while I was eating it, I found myself questioning whether it was all worth it. Finding all the crazy ingredients and the multiple days of preparing the different components was a lot of work. Could I have taken a sugar cookie, spread Nutella on it and topped it with chocolate syrup and been just as happy? I'm still not sure. I do know it will be a special occasion if I ever make the entire tart again, but I think this ganache recipe may become a staple.
Julie
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