Eggless Ferrero Rocher Tart - Baking Eggless Challenge

In today's busy and often hectic lifestyle, its not unusual that people tend to stick to certain routines and schedules to make their lives easier. While sticking to particular habits and methods might save you some time and effort, it is also possible that monotony might set in ! I joined the Baking Eggless Group a few months back, just to break a similar monotony in my kitchen and on my blog. The challenges set every month are amazing, the resources available are very helpful and the group members are absolutely awesome !
If you like cooking / baking and are looking to create something new in your kitchen, do join up.
This month's challenge might very well persuade you !
For the month of September, the bakers at Baking Eggless attempted to create the Ferrero Rocher Tart in their kitchens.This recipe was suggested by Priya Srinivasan of Enveetu Kitchen and the original recipe is from Trissalicious. As the name suggests, the star ingredients of this tart are hazelnuts, hazelnut cream / mousse and chocolate. There are several components of this tart and it is a significantly time consuming process.
It is also pretty calorie dense. It will definitely not win in the healthiest dessert competition ;-)
But it is an outstanding dessert and will definitely amaze your family !
Without further ado, here's the recipe !

Tart Base or Crust 
I adapted this recipe from Dishes From My Kitchen and halved the recipe.
3/4 C Cake Flour
6 Tbsp Butter
3 Tbsp Sugar
3 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa
a pinch of Salt

Method:
1.Process the butter, sugar and salt in a food processor until combined.
2. Add the cocoa powder and pulse until smooth.
3. Then add the flour and pulse until crumbs are formed.
Note: I do not have a food processor, although I have a small chopper. I completed steps 1 and 2 in the chopper, then turned out the mixture onto a big plate and then cut the flour into it in batches.
4. Gather the flour to form a disc and then wrap it up in parchment or wax paper and refrigerate for at least an hour. Mine remained there overnight!
5. When ready, turn out the disc onto a flat surface. You might need to let it thaw just a little bit so that rolling will be easy.
6. To make things easier, place the parchment paper over the disc and then roll until its about 2 mm.
7. Cut out circles that are slightly larger than the tartlett pans or muffin tin that you are using.
8. Place the dough circles into the tins and refrigerate for about an hour.
9. When ready, blind bake the crusts at 350F for 10 minutes and then bake directly for a further 5 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and set aside until cool.

Hazelnut Mousse 
The original recipe for the mousse contained eggs as well as gelatin. While searching for a suitable vegetarian recipe, I came across this one by Tarla Dalal which contained neither.Again, I halved the recipe and was pretty happy with it.

1/2 C chopped chocolate (I used a mixture of milk chocolate and unsweetened )
2 Tbsp milk
6 Tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nutella)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar (you can omit this)
3/4 C whipped cream

Method
1.Combine the chocolate and milk in a microwaveable bowl and heat until the chocolate melts.
2. Add the nutella and mix well.
3. Fold in the whipped cream gently and refrigerate until the mousse sets.
Note: Covering the surface of the mousse directly with cling wrap prevents the unwanted skin from forming!

Chocolate Hazelnut Thing
I referred to the original recipe for this layer. I just scaled it down.
2 Tbsp milk chocolate
2 Tbsp nutella
1/2 Tbsp dark chocolate / semisweet
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp any neutral tasting oil
4 Tbsp crushed caramelized hazelnuts

Method
1. Place all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and heat until the chocolate melts.
2. Mix thoroughly well and mix in the crushed hazelnuts.
Note: I had to add a tablespoon of cream to get the right texture.

Caramelized Hazelnuts
1/2 C toasted hazelnuts
1/4 C sugar
2 Tbsp water

Method
1. Place the sugar and the water in a heavy bottomed pan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the toasted nust and take off the heat.
3. Mix gently until syrup thickens a little.
4. Return to heat and mix gently until the sugar turns into a golden color.
5. Pour onto a baking tray or a similar surface and cool.

To Assemble :
For making tarts, pipe some hazelnut mousse into the tart shell, then top with the chocolate thing and sprinkle some crushed caramelized nuts.
For verrines (useful if you arent able to get your tarts out of the container :) ) , crush the tart shells into a clear glass, pipe some hazelnut mousse over it, top with the chocolate thing and sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts!

Whew !! That was a pretty lengthy recipe, wasnt it ?It was quite satisfying to get it completed!
Taste wise, it had a very intense chocolate flavor with the buttery taste of the hazelnuts for a complement.
It was, however ,a little too sweet for my tastebuds.That , combined with the fact that this confection is quite high in fat and calories makes the serving size very very tiny!

(Home Made From Scratch!) Eggless Tiramisu - Baking Eggless Challenge

I have come to realize, the hard way in fact, that I am more likely to complete any given task or project in a given frame of mind, if I were held accountable for it! I am sure many of us are the same way. Its not that I lack self motivation or the tenacity to stick to something and see it through completion. But I do let things slide if I perceive other tasks or items with a higher priority (for e.g. kids, their activities, their health, you get the idea.. )
To make a long story short, I came across the Baking Eggless group when I was going through some blogs and I thought it was an immensely interesting idea and a relevant one since any and all baking that I do is eggless ! So I joined the group and here is my first challenge - completed (by mere hours to spare , but completed nonetheless , whew ! )

The challenge this month was to make Tiramisu, the Italian pick me up :) , completely from scratch and eggless to boot. I had made Tiramisu before, but had used store bought savioardi and mascarpone cheese. The second time around, I stuck to the basic recipe and kept it simple.





The mascarpone cheese was pretty easy to make and I was totally surprised by the result. I followed the recipe faithfully and the cheese turned out really well.

Now the all-important lady finger cookies or the savioardi cookies were a different matter altogether...My first attempt turned out pretty badly..the cookies were totally flat and chewy and unusable for a Tiramisu..They weren't inedible, thankfully..I would have hated to see them go to waste !
Then I decided to follow the eggless recipe that most of my fellow baking enthusiasts seemed to have success with and was pretty satisfied with the results...I halved the recipe because I was afraid of not getting the proper results and then seeing them go waste.They were still not as fluffy and light and perfectly shaped as the original version, but I wasn't complaining !





The next step was to make the whipped cream, which was as simple as taking cold heavy cream in a preferably chilled bowl and whipping it with preferably chilled beaters until soft peaks form . I added a little bit of sugar to the cream halfway through the whipping. This helps in getting to the soft peak stage.



Ingredients:
1 C heavy whipping cream
2 tsp granulated sugar

Method:
Pour the cream into a bowl and using a hand held mixer, whip the cream for at least 3 minutes. Slowly add the sugar and continue whipping until soft peaks form, at least another minute or so.

The mascarpone cheese is mixed thoroughly with sugar. The whipped cream is then gently folded into the cheese in parts, so that the aeration is not lost. This helps in in keeping the final mixture creamy and light.




Last but not the least - the assembling:

I used a 9 X 5 loaf pan, you can use any kind of container, square or round. You might have to cut your cookies to size. Line the container with cling wrap so that its easy to unmould and cut before serving.

Method:
1. Dip the cookies quickly in cooled coffee and place them in a single layer in your container of choice. You can make the coffee to your preferred strength.
2. Using half of the whipped cream - mascarpone mixture, layer it onto the cookies using a flat spoon or a spatula. Cover all the cookies evenly and get the mixture into the corners of the container.
3. Place another layer of coffee dipped cookies onto the layer of cream.
4. Use up the remaining of the cream - cheese mixture to top off the cookies.
5. Sprinkle unsweetened cocoa over the top , cover with foil or cling wrap and refrigerate overnight before unmoulding and serving and devouring :)



Notes:
1. The eggless lady finger biscuits will probably not come close to the version with the eggs. They will be delicious and useful in a Tiramisu, but they probably wont be as fluffy and light as the original ones.
2. You can use as many or as less of the cookies as you want. It depends on the size of the container you use.
3. Refrigerating the assembled Tiramisu is highly recommended, because it will help the cookies absorb the liquids and will help the flavors merge.
4. Although there are several components to this recipe and it is definitely a time consuming recipe, it is definitely a must try!
5. We ate the Tiramisu after refrigerating it for 24 hrs. It was really good. Although, I think I should have dipped the cookies a little bit longer in the coffee. I was unsure of whether it would hold up to a longer dipping. The cookies didn't soften all that much, but since they were no delicious as well, it didn't really matter in the end !