My Aunt Kathy turned me on to a community baking endeavor spearheaded by Pittsburgh native, Laurie Woodward. The story goes like this – over four years ago Woodward received a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s, James Beard award-winning book, “Baking From My Home to Yours” as a Christmas present and vowed to bake one recipe per week for a year. The full details can be read in this Washington Post article, but long story short, Woodward’s mission became a four year long blogging community effort called “Tuesdays with Dorie.” Greenspan herself has been much involved in the process. Now Woodward and company are starting a new book by Greenspan and Julia Child, “Baking with Julia: Savor the Joys of Baking with America’s Best Bakers” (1996, William Morrow & Co.). Anyone with a blog, a copy of the book, and the willingness to bake at least one out of two featured recipes per month is welcome to join the group. Here goes!
I must admit, I don’t yet own a copy of “Baking with Julia.” For this first recipe, I had to check the book out of the library. However, I just got a new job after 10 months of unemployment (yay!), so I think purchasing a copy of the book is definitely on my list of things to do now that I will have a little extra pocket money.
Chocolate Truffle Tartlets
The full recipe can be found on Jessica’s blog, Cookbook Habit.
I don’t have individual mini tart pans and because my fiance already gives me enough grief about how much “kitchen stuff” I have, I decided to refrain from going out and buying mini pans and just use the 9 inch tart pan I already own.
Making the chocolate crust was a complete failure. I attempted to prepare the dough by hand because I only have a mini food processor and didn’t think it would be large enough. After adding the yolk and 1 tbsp of water my dough was so barely moist I thought there was no way it would form in to anything remotely solid so I slowly, bit by bit, ended up adding 5 tbsp total which I thought must be excessive, but the dough was still very dry. It barely formed in to a square and then picking that “square” up to put it on the plastic wrap was no small feat. I should have prepared the plastic wrap in advance because my hands were a mess from working with the dough and I had to wash them before getting the saran wrap box a complete chocolaty mess. I left the dough in the fridge to chill over night, but the next day I could plainly see it would never roll out into anything workable. That’s when I shamefully headed to the store the purchase a Pillsbury pie crust. My head hangs in shame.
I am happy to say I had much better luck with the filling. I couldn’t find white chocolate at my Trader Joe’s so made due with milk chocolate and dark chocolate and of course the biscotti which ended up being my favorite part.
The filling did spill a little over the sides of the crust, but I was very pleased with the consistency and over-all chocolate goodness. I prepared this as a special treat for my Valentine and I loved hearing him say, “this is the best dessert you’ve ever made.” I will be interested to hear other’s experience with this one.
The recipes for March have not been announced yet, but judging from this first recipe, I am both excited and a little scared to see what challenge will come next. Stay tuned.
Library, PA 