The Best Chocolate Hazelnut Tartlets

Skinny Chocolate Tart Recipe 

There is something so delicate and decadent about Chocolate Hazelnut Tartlets, with the richness of the roasted hazelnuts mixed with the subtle cocoa powder, we believe that even this rich chocolate dessert can be made with healthy alternatives to cut out unnecessary sugars & calories. Here’s how to make the perfect chocolate hazelnut tartlets.

Starting with equipment, here's everything you'll need from rubber spatulas to baking trays, without having to fork out for expensive professional baking equipment!

• Heavy rolling pin 
• Large mixer bowl
• Dipped Baking Tray 
• Heatproof baking mat (optional)
• Whisk

 Ingredients

• 1 cup butter

• 2 cups flour

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg yolk (or vegan egg alternative)

• 1/2 cup milk (oat milk alternatives also work)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract / 1/2 teaspoon vanilla syrup

• 100g Chocolate Hazelnut Spread 

• 1 Cup crushed hazelnuts

• Hazelnut Syrup(optional)

Method

• We're going to begin by making the base for our tartlets, which is a shortbread pastry, with additional chopped hazelnuts (or hazelnut syrup). 

Preheat oven to 200c or Gas Mark 5 - Take your baking tins and grease with butter or 1kcal oil spray.

In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, next add your plain flour, chopped hazelnuts & a dash of hazelnut syrup and a pinch of salt and continue mixing until firm pastry dough is formed. 

Once the dough has been formed, place it in the fridge to cool for at least 45 minutes, this can be done up to 24 hours in advance if you're planning on prepping for a dinner party!

• Unlike traditional tartlets, we won't need to make a dark chocolate ganache to centre our tartlets, we're simply going to use The Skinny Food Co's Chocolate Hazelnut Cocoa Spread. With the sweet taste of heavenly milk chocolate and the combination of nutty hazelnut, it's hard to believe that this chocolate spread is vegan! - If you did, however, want a creamier centre texture, we recommend adding just a dash of double / heavy cream to our spread, and whisking until combined. 
• By this time you should have a cold dough that's ready for baking. Taking your greased tart cups it's time to separate your dough and form your cases. They won't need long to bake, so keep the baking temperature between 180-200 and bake for 10-15 minutes on medium heat. 
• Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, using the tartlet cases at this point cause causes cracking, or melting if trying to combine with chocolate. 
• Once cooled it's time to bring them all together, combining the mixture of chocolate spread and piping into the shells, you can top your tartlets with an individual raspberry, cherry or even some grated hazelnuts for additional flare. 

Top Tips: This recipe is perfect because you can change the size of the baked tartlets, and fill them with different fillings to create whole new recipes, such as raspberry jam, lemon curd, caramel sauce etc. Once you know the foundation of the tartlet bases, this recipe can be used for a wide variety from quality milk chocolate to fruity- summer tarts. 

Chocolate Tartlet Flavours 

If hazelnut isn't your go-to flavour, then recreating these chocolate tartlets with an alternative chocolate spread is easy-peasy. Simply follow the same recipe, replacing the chopped hazelnuts with a chopped nut of choice. 

We often substitute chopped hazelnuts for chopped almonds, however, you don't require any chopped nuts at all - if you'd prefer a simple pastry, you can simply combine plain flour with almond powder for a sweet shortbread base. 

White Chocolate and Raspberry tartlets 

An ultimate classic, with rich chocolate ganache made from luxurious white chocolate, combined with double cream and a raspberry jam. 

Alternatively, to save you time & effort you could try our best-selling white chocolate & raspberry spread, which is zero calories and zero sugar. 

The white chocolate tart is an absolute dream for coffee lovers, as it pairs extraordinarily well with a fresh cup of coffee, or even a fine bottle of red wine at the end of a meal. 

Chocolate Caramel Tartlets 

Following the same process, including our caramel syrup, or chocolate caramel sauce - chocolate caramel tarts are best paired with fresh strawberries. Much like the classic caramel chocolate tart, they're perfect for large gatherings & parties, alongside desserts for date nights & intimate family meals. 

When eating a chocolate tart, you can also choose to pair it with warm cream to pour for a truly luxurious experience, again if you're looking to make this meal 100% vegan then shop online for almond cream or alternative animal-friendly cream mixtures which keep this recipe 100% cruelty-free. 

How to decorate a chocolate tart?

As tartlets are smaller versions of the classic chocolate tarts, it's easy to design and decorate both tarts & tartlets. Scaling down your original design ideas for the tarts to fit the tartlets. 

• Fresh Blueberries & Fresh Strawberries - Fruit in general are the perfect tart decorations, as they add an additional layer of flavour, texture & sweetness. 
• Gold Chocolate Shavings - Whether you purchase your own gold chocolate, or use an edible gold spray to add a visual element to your mini tartlets - this is a fine choice when looking to add a touch of elegance to your mini desserts.
• Coffee Beans - If you've opted for a coffee-flavoured chocolate tart, then adding a singular coffee bean is the perfect touch to your coffee tart, it adds sophistication without going over the top on decorations. We see this done commonly with cocktails & other coffee-flavoured beverages. 

How Long Does Chocolate Tart Last? 

If kept properly in an airtight container, your chocolate tart may last up to 1-2 weeks, however, if you have decided to decorate your tart with fresh fruit, your fruit will likely expire before your tart, so be sure to either add fruit as you go! or get the whole family a slice and tuck in!