Mini Heart Chocolate Truffle Tarts, let’s let chocolate flow freely in our kitchens and baked goods. This is the very perfect Valentines Heart to share with loved ones and stash a few in the back of the fridge.
You can make these truffle tarts in an afteroon, or make the crusts with or without filling a day ahead, and store in your fridge for up to 1 week once finished.
To start is the chocolate tart dough. It’s a little different than Grandma’s Pie Crust, as you can re-roll it for the heart cut outs. As you see below the dough is “crumbly” but it is not dry. If you grab it, it will hold together when you squeeze it.
After you have pressed the dough into a ball of sorts, divide in half. Cover the countertop with a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Flatten one half of the dough ball by hand and place another layer of wax or parchment and roll out to 1/4-inch thick.
Using a 4-inch x 4-inch heart cookie cutter, cut out 12 hearts. You will need to use the extra pieces of dough to re-roll out. But, you will have no problem getting 12 heart cutouts. Here are a couple of cookie cutters that have the perfect shape Smooth Edge and Scalloped Edge. For a great rolling pin check out Farberware.
One by one, fit each heart dough cutout into the tins. I purchased these Disposable Heart Tins from Amazon and THEY ARE FABULOUS! You could re-use them, but as I gave away most of the truffle hearts, I did not have many to save.
These cute heart tin crusts need to be pre-baked (blind baked); place a paper cupcake liner in each tin. Fill each tin with dry beans or rice. And, to answer a question in advance, no, you cannot bake with these beans after using them as weights. They’re now your permament pie weights.
I did put liners in last row, just showing progression. It will take about 1 pound of dry beans to fill all 12 cups. Bake @ 350 F. for 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and remove the papers. The filling is next, pretty darn easy process. It’s basically making ganache and then adding eggs. Fill each tin with filling and bake @ 350 F. also for 15 minutes.
Below are the baked tarts. But way, there’s just a little more. The glaze. The 5 tarts on the left (below) have the very thin layer of glaze, the 5 on the right do not. The glaze is not 100% necessary, but it does give the tarts a more “finished” look. They look stunning with a little decor add.
Left is glazed, right is NOT glazed.
Regardless, after they are all cooled I piped on a very simple two-stroke rosebud and used a writing tip to add a simple green stem. Less is more and like real roses, no two are exactly alike. The glaze does become more opaque as it cools and hardens.
For a super cute gift, as the Heart Tins came with lids (which went on quite easy but firm) and don’t these cuties look GREAT?!
Mini Heart Chocolate Truffle Tarts
Equipment
- 12 paper cupcake liners
- 12 3.1 oz Disposable Heart Baking Tins (see link to Amazon for tins)
- 4 x 4-inch Heart-shaped cookie cutter, smooth or scalloped (see link to Amazon for tins)
- Parchment paper or wax paper
- Rolling pin
Ingredients
Chocolate Tart Crust (Makes 12 mini tart crusts)
- 12 tablespoons butter (1-1/2 cubes) Soften to room temp.
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 for gluten free)
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened (Dutch) cocoa powder
Chocolate Truffle Fillilng
- 1-1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1-1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (9 ounces)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Dash of salt
Chocolate Glaze (for finished tart)
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon warm water
Instructions
Chocolate Tart Crusts
- Preheat Oven to 350 F.
- In a medium to large bowl, with electric mixer, cream butter and powdered sugar together about 3 minutes. Add in the egg and beat with mixer another 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl mix the unsweetened cocoa and flour together. With a large serving fork or pastry cutter, mix the flour/cocoa mixture into the creamed butter and sugar, just until mixed. It should be large damp-looking crumbles, but when grabbing a handful and squeezing it holds together. It will not be sticky.
- Place dough in between 2 sheets of wax paper, parchment paper, or plastic wrap. Divide in half. Take one-half of dough, form into a ball, and flatten a little by hand. Place on paper of choice and roll out dough to about 1/4-inch thick.
- Peel off the top layer of paper and cut out 12 hearts with cookie cutters, re-rolling extra dough until all 12 are cut out.
- Fit each cutout into the heart tin, gently pressing in corners just a tad.
- Place a paper cupcake liner into each tin with dough, fill with dry beans. Place tins onto baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and remove papers and dry bean weights.
Chocolate Tart Filling
- Place chocolate chips in a medium size bowl, set aside.
- In a saucepan, bring cream to a boil, then pour over chocolate and let stand undisturbed for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, gently whisk chocolate until smooth.
- In separate medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, and salt. Then whisk egg mixture into the melted chocolate.
- Pour filling into prepared tart crusts. Bake 15 minutes. The tops will be shiny.
- Cool for about 1 hour and then add finishing glaze if desired.
Finishing Ganache Glaze
- In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted and smooth. Stir in corn syrup & warm water.
- Spoon about 1 teaspoon on top of each tart. Pick up the tart pan and tilt back and forth so glaze covers the entire surface to edges.
- Store in refrigerator covered for up to 1 week. May freeze, wrapped in plastic, for about 3 months.
