TWD Baking with Julia: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

.  TWD?  Baking with Julia?  Did you miss something here?

No, no, nothing has slipped by you.  I've actually been waiting for over one year to make this announcement.  Over one year for this very post.

You all know that I'm part of a couple monthly challenges, both SRC and ICC [the Secret Recipe Club and the Improve Cooking Challenge, for you newbies].  But since the day I started blogging, one group was always out of my grasp.  Yes, the infamous Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) club.  For those of you who don't know of Dorie Greenspan, well, she's basically THE baker woman and a well known cookbook author.  So much so that there is an entire blog and following dedicated to honoring her work [obv the group I speak of now!].  You can read the entire TWD history for the full story, but the group is based around recreating recipes from Dorie's books or from books written by her and other authors.  The first book adventure, Baking: From My Home to Yours [by Dorie], began in 2008 and officially wrapped up in December 2011.  That's FOUR YEARS people!  Fortunately I started blogging when the group only had one year left [ha!], but here I am now.  An official TWD member!

So beginning in February 2012, the TWD club commenced, this time making recipes from Baking with Julia, written by Dorie and Julia Child.  There's basically only one major rule to the group: every month, two recipes are chosen from the book and members are encouraged to post about both of them, however, only one monthly post is required.  The actual recipes are posted on the blogs of the hosts for the month, where you can also find the links to other members' posts.  That's it!  Unfortunately, I wasn't accepted into the group until about a week or so before the first post, so I opted to skip that one [it was White Bread, in case you're curious!].

Consequently, I was left with Chocolate Truffle Tartlets.  Left?  Ha, that makes it sound like it was a chore.  Hmm?  No.  When you get something this dang good, it's anything but an obligation.  Dorie and Julia completely outdid themselves with this one.  And I can guarantee I will be saying that, oh, every TWD post ☺

So to be frank, these tartlets are pretty fancy pants.  They look fancy, taste fancy, and the name 'tartlets' just screams  fancy!

I will forewarn, these take a couple of steps, but I was quite caught off guard by how easy they were to make.  And the product?  Rich decadence.  Pure bliss.  I swear.

Let's start from the outside: a chocolate crust.  Uh, yum?  Yes sirree.  The crust itself is flakey and well, chocolatey.  Not an outrageous chocolate flavor though.  No, there's enough chocolatey-ness in the filling to complement this subtly sweet and buttery crust.  But I know you are all curious as to what make these tartlets so special.  And yes, you guessed it.  It's that filling!  Not only do you get to sink your chompers into a chocolate truffle middle, a seriously soft and creamy filling, but you'll also get to indulge in chunks of milk chocolate, white chocolate, and bits of biscotti.  Okay, kind of random combination if you ask me, but BOY [or girl], does it work!  How could all of that together not be good, anyway?  Answer?  It can't.

To be honest, I was a tad intimidated to attempt this recipe.  I'd never made tartlets before, so I had no clue what to expect.  But the directions were spot on and I can't really think of any hitches I experienced?  The only thing I can recall is that the crust can have a tendency to be crumbly, so just be patient with it.  Otherwise, you should be golden!

For my first TWD post, I think things went rather well!  I even sent 'sneak peak' pictures to my mom because I was so excited [and shocked!] that the tartlets turned out.  So head on over to Spike, Jaime, or Jessica's blog to find the recipe for Chocolate Truffle Tartlets and experience these heavenly rounds for yourself!  .