Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Tart

March 10, 2015

Rose explains in her Introduction that this Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse tart was a mere modification of the Peanut Butter Mousse Tart from The Pie and Pastry Bible. Swapping hazelnuts for peanuts is a matter of preference, she says, but for me, her change made me reconsider the lowly peanut versus the soft-spoken hazelnut—a hazelnut that went from a commoner to a noble in one simple “swap.” How is it that nuts can be classed and outclassed? My guests fell silent while, forkful by forkful, the experience of this Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Tart became one of the most elegant and refined desserts that we’ve tasted.

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Ingredients

Volume Grams Ounces

Instructions

HAZELNUT PRALINE POWDER

This time I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. This time, the hazelnuts had to be dry roasted to the core and the sugar must come to temperature so that it crackles and is clear, not cloudy.

Peeling the hazelnuts is monk’s work.

Peeled and roasted hazelnuts for the praline.

Making praline powder with very hot sugar.

My only hope was that my current food processor (my ideal food processor) would break while whizzing the praline into a powder. I keep my fingers crossed each time I place great demands of this poor, old machine. Damn, it survived again.

I think this praline powder came out better than my first try with the Hazelnut Praline Cookies.

HAZELNUT COOKIE CRUST

Because my food processor survived the Praline Powder, I used it for the dough too.

Hazelnut Cookie Dough spread into the 9″ square tart pan.

The technique for distributing the dough was really inventive. It worked really well. Here, here to plastic wrap!

The Hazelnut Cookie dough spread into the tart pan with plastic wrap. Cool technique.

The dough didn’t collapse or puff when it was baked. That was nice.

HAZELNUT PRALINE MOUSSE FILLING

This came together easily and problem free.

Sugar, butter and praline paste for the mousse.

Folding the whipped cream into the praline filling.

The hazelnut mousse filling in the empty shell

I smoothed it in the tart shell and put it in the fridge overnight, mostly because I didn’t have time to finish it.

Hazelnut Mousse spread into the tart shell.

FRANGELICO GANACHE GLAZE

Frangelico! Oh I have that. So I dug through the liquor cabinet only to find the bottle was completely empty. Not a drop to squeeze out. Who put the empty bottle away? It wasn’t me! So I used an orange infused rum instead.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze ready to pour onto the mousse.

GLAZE THE TART

I adore the way the ganache was swirled in Rose’s picture, so I tried to emulate it.

Chocolate Ganache on the Hazelnut Mousse, The Finer Cookie.

CARMELIZED HAZELNUTS DECOR

I had to make these.

Cooking sugar for the caramelized hazelnuts.

Caramelizing hazelnuts, The Finer Cookie.

Caramelized Hazelnuts, The Finer Cookie.

WHAT ARE THE ALPHA BAKERS? : Here’s how it works: once a week, for the next two years, 25 Alpha Bakers commit to baking their way through every recipe of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s newly published The Baking Bible. Each week we post our experiences on our blog sites: our successes, our failures, our likes and dislikes. The recipes are scheduled in advance so that everyone will be baking the same recipe at the same time. Unfortunately, no recipes can be shared in my Alpha Bakers posts due to publishing restrictions. But if you love to bake, The Baking Bible is a must-have book. You can see other tutorials for the same recipe at the following link The Baking Bible Alpha Bakers at http://rosesalphabakers.blogspot.ca/.