'Better Than You' Choco-HazelnutTart

Dear Amanda,

Yum.



I have dubbed this dessert "Better Than You" Tart because it puts my earlier tarts to shame. I finally gave in and bought a little food processor, brought it home, and commenced toasted-hazelnut chopping. The crust actually has hazelnut dust in it (just a heads up--I am fairly certain this is what fairies use). So goooooooood. Tricky to work with though, because the oils in the nuts make the dough much stickier than normal. I stuck it in the freezer for a few minutes after a first failed attempt at getting the crust into the pan.

I have recently become obsessed with real whipped cream, which literally and figuratively tops this off. That stuff is amazing. Cool whip is sacrilege. It shouldn't be allowed to masquerade under the guise of whipped cream. I hate cool whip.



...yes, I know those two photos were almost identical. I couldn't choose.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter cut into pieces
4 tablespoons ice water

Chocolate Filling:
7 oz semisweet chocolate
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream (I can't seem to go a week without this...so bad for meee)
3 large eggs

Instructions:
-blend hazelnuts with sugar in food processor. Add flour and salt till blended. Add butter, chop until corse crumbs. Add water and form into disk. Refrigerate or freeze until firm.
-Roll it out and transfer to pan! Then refrigerate it again, until firm, because your hands probably got it all warm.
-Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes. Cool.
-Prepare filling in saucepan by adding the chocolates and butter until melted. Stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt and then remove from heat.
-In a bowl, whisk cream and eggs a bit. Whisk this into your chocolate. Yum.
-Pout chocolate into the crust, bake 15-17 minutes at 350.
-Scrape the choco-remnants from the saucepan and eat as is or with graham crackers.
Yum.

As good as this is, my favorite dessert EVER goes to kunafa. Have you had this? I am convinced that they serve kunafa in heaven; it fits right in with the golden theme. I need to find a good recipe that is actually in English. Even then I doubt my abilities to replicate its wonders. Things that kunafa makes me think of:

-warm drinks in the bleak midwinter; tea, coffee, hot chocolate...
-cider, Christmas, and draft horses on Christmas tree farms
-fireplaces
-family
-sheep. Wooly ones on green hills at dusk.
-if the TARDIS were a dessert, she would be kunafa (so golden!)
-summer honey
-the lamp post in Narnia
-the hearts of stars

Sorry. It's just so good.

If you don't read to the bottom, you might miss this insanity.

You know what else is good? Sweetened condensed milk.

Much love,

Celia