Composed of hazelnut cream filling baked in a tart crust and then topped with chocolate ganache, this tart known as Tarte Piémontaise in French is rich, decadent and absolutely delicious!
Components
There are three components in this recipe:
- The tart crust which serves as the base. We’ll be making hazelnut pâte sucrée today. Simply mix together butter and sugar then add ground hazelnuts, salt, egg and flour.
- Hazelnut cream which will be spread over the partially baked crust. Just mix a few ingredients together in a food processor and you’re done!
- Chocolate ganache to decorate the tart once it has been baked and cooled down.
Okay, now that you have an overview, let’s get into all the details!
Hazelnut Pâte Sucrée
Mixing the dough
- Place the butter in a large bowl. It should be very soft so that you can easily incorporate the other ingredients.
Tip: Press the butter against the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure it’s soft enough. If it isn’t, let it warm up a bit longer at room temperature. Alternatively, briefly heat it in the microwave for a few seconds until softened, not melted.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix with a spatula until combined. The mixture will look creamy.
- Mix in the ground hazelnuts and salt.
- Add the egg and whisk just until fully incorporated.
Tip: Mix the dough as little as possible. We want to avoid incorporating air into the dough so it doesn’t puff up during baking.
Tip: Don’t worry if the mixture looks a bit curdled. It will come together once you add the flour. Just make sure you are using room temperature ingredients.
- Pour the flour into the bowl and using the spatula or a bench scraper, “cut” through the dough in small, repetitive, vertical movements. The dough will slowly come together. It’s ready when you can gather it into a ball.
Tip: By simply cutting through the dough, you are less likely to overwork it. If the dough is overmixed, too much gluten will form yielding an elastic dough that shrinks in the oven.
Rolling out the dough
- Transfer the dough to a large piece of parchment paper and flatten into a rectangle with your hands. Top with another large piece of parchment paper. Then roll out the dough into a 28 cm (11 inch) circle about 3 mm thick (1/8 inch), enough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan.
Tip: Make sure the parchment paper isn’t creased for a smooth surface. You can use two large silicone mats instead, if available.
- Place on a flat baking sheet. Chill for at least 1 hour or until the dough is no longer sticky and you can easily peel off the parchment paper.
Tip: If you accidentally overworked the dough, it’s best to chill it overnight to weaken the gluten.
Lining the tart pan
- Take the dough out of the fridge about 5 minutes before lining the pan. If it’s too cold, it will start to crack. Too warm and it will be sticky.
Tip: The dough is at the right temperature when: 1) It isn’t sticky and you can easily peel off the parchment paper. 2) It is flexible (not stiff) when you gently lift the sides of the parchment paper.
- Line a 23 cm (9 inch) tart pan with dough. Prick the bottom and sides of the dough and return to the fridge for an hour (or freeze for 15 minutes). If you’re not sure how to do this, you might like to read How to line a tart pan with pastry.
Baking the tart crust
- Place a shallow oven tray in the bottom third of the oven. Then preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F, conventional setting).
- Bake the cold tart for about 23 minutes or until the crust feels dry and the edges of the tart are just starting to brown.
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack (in the pan) to cool down for about 15 minutes while you prepare the hazelnut cream.
Hazelnut Cream
The hazelnut cream is composed of hazelnuts, sugar, butter, eggs and hazelnut praline paste. You can use hazelnut flour instead of hazelnuts. But since it can be hard to find, I like to make it myself by grinding toasted hazelnuts and sugar in a food processor. Adding the sugar gives us a bit more time to mix before the hazelnuts start to form a paste (which we don’t want).
- Place the hazelnuts and sugar in a small food processor bowl. Pulse several times in 1-second increments until the mixture looks powdery. Don’t mix for too long so it doesn’t form a paste.
- Add the softened butter and mix briefly to combine.
- Mix in the egg and praline paste just until combined.
- Pour into the slighted cooled tart crust. Spread evenly with a large spoon.
- Return the filled tart to the oven (bottom third). Bake for about 23 minutes or until golden and puffed up.
- Transfer to a wire rack (in the pan). Cool down completely at room temperature before topping with chocolate ganache (so it doesn’t melt).
Chocolate Ganache
The ganache is traditionally chilled then piped onto the hazelnut cream. The tricky part is getting it at the right temperature so it’s easy to pipe. Too warm and it won’t hold peaks. Too cold and it will be too firm to pipe.
If you’d rather not pipe the ganache, you can simply spread it over the hazelnut cream like frosting.
If you want a smoother surface and just a thin layer of ganache, you could try pouring a little bit of the warm ganache (still runny) over the hazelnut cream. But this can be a bit tricky to do without it spilling over the sides. Then to decorate, you could simply pipe a few dots of ganache along the edge of the tart.
And that’s it! Hope you enjoy!
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