Nutty Nutella Tarts

No one can resist these nutty and chocolatey delights – and the best thing is you do not have to prepare the filling at all! Just have a jar of Nutella or any chocolate spread nearby!

The variation for these tarts is endless – you can go for strawberry jam, blueberry jam, raspberry jam, peach jam… or even chestnut purée!

But I’ll try to get jams that have a lower sugar content – otherwise the tarts may be too sweet – unless you have a huge sweet tooth…

I baked these tarts using 4-cm tart pans, and it can yield about 30-40 tarts. If you like a thicker crust, it should still yield about 20 tarts or so.

These tarts bake slightly faster than the blueberry tarts, so I’ve adjusted the timing for the tarts accordingly below. (:

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Nutty Nutella Tarts (makes 30-40 4-cm tarts)

adapted from 500 Pies & Tarts

For the dough:
280 grams plain flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
225 grams cold good quality unsalted butter
1 large egg
2 teaspoon white vinegar
2 tablespoon ice-cold water

For the filling:
~300 grams Nutella (or any reduced-sugar jam filling)

The steps seemed really long and tedious to read, but I’m trying to make the steps as detailed as possible, so don’t be put off by the length of the steps! (:

For step-by-step photos of the crust-making, refer to the apple pie recipe! (:

Making the dough:
Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and add the chunks into the flour mixture.

Use a pastry blender or a fork, cut the butter into the flour mixture. Alternatively, use two knives in a criss-crossing motion. Work fast and try not to let the butter melt. Blend the butter into the flour mixture until it has a consistency of damp sand, with a few pea-sized pieces of butter remaining.

In a separate small bowl, beat the egg with the vinegar and water together with a fork or a wire whisk. Slowly pour the egg mixture over the flour, stirring the mixture with a fork until the mixture is moist. The dough should stick together and hold the form of a small ball.

Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and flatten it (either by hand or with a rolling pin) so it forms a flat disc that fills the corners of the plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for a minimum half an hour.

At this point, you can choose to finish making the tarts another day. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for 3 months.

Rolling out the dough and lining the tart pans:
Remove the dough from the fridge (if the dough has been chilled for a long time, soften it lightly by letting it rest at the room temperature for a couple of minutes before it’s soft enough to work with).

Place a large piece of parchment paper (or baking paper) on the table top. Sprinkle the top of the parchment paper with plain flour. Unwrap the dough (remove the plastic wrap) and place the dough on top of the flour. Sprinkle the top of the dough with more flour.

Dust the rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough from the centre of the disc to the edge, until the crust is the desired thickness, which is usually about 1/8-inch (3mm) thick, and at least 1 inch wider than the pie dish. Keep dusting the rolling pin while rolling to prevent the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin.

Use a 6-cm ring mould and cut out rounds. Transfer the rounds into the tart pans and press the dough in gently. Gather the scraps together, re-roll the dough and repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Assembly, baking and serving:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Using a spoon, fill the tarts with Nutella until 2/3-full. Do not fill more than that! Otherwise the filling will overflow and the tarts won’t look as pretty.

Place the tarts in the centre rack and bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. Lower the temperature to 195 degrees Celsius and continue to bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Cool the tarts completely on a wire rack. Remove the tarts from the tart pans and serve.

Notes:

• Use only the best-quality butter you can find for the pie crust. And cold butter is a must!
• If you like vegetable shortening in the crust, use 115 grams vegetable shortening and 115 grams of unsalted butter.
• If you have a food processor, by all means use it to make the dough! Combine the flour, salt and butter in the food processor; pulse several times until the mixture resembles damp sand. Don’t overdo it!
• Do flour the table top / counter top, dough, and the rolling pin well before rolling to prevent sticking. If the dough does stick to the table top, use a spatula / palette knife to gently ease the dough.
• Store the baked tarts in an air-tight container in a fridge. Reheat in a 150 degrees Celsius oven for 15 minutes when you want to eat it.

Happy baking!